Indian Army briefs Parliamentary Panel on Surgical strikes

New Delhi : The army briefed the members of the Parliamentary standing committee on Defence about the surgical strikes carried out in PoK. The briefing of this successful campaign was given by Lt. General Bipin Rawat. However, the army clarified that no questions would be accepted during this briefing. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Vikas Swaroop refuted the news report that appeared in a Pakistani newspaper about the ‘Surgical Strikes’ by calling it absolutely baseless.

The news about the Indian army conducting surgical strikes on September 29^th at midnight in PoK, led to celebrations in India and turmoil in Pakistan. Pakistan had dismissed this claim by stating that the ‘surgical strikes’ never happened. On these grounds, demands were being made for India to provide evidence about these surgical strikes. However, the Indian government decided to not disclose any such proof. Likewise, there was also a demand to disclose the details of this campaign before the Parliamentary standing committee. The army did provide these details to the parliamentary panel.

Meanwhile, the impact of the surgical strikes is still echoing in Pakistan. The Pakistani media accused India of deceit. At the same time, in the wake of the security threats, Pakistani government had expressed concern by calling upon a special Parliament session. Whereas, the Pakistani army claimed it will retaliate against India. A terrorist leader like Hafiz Saeed threatened of conducting ‘Surgical Strikes’ in India. The chief of ‘ Jaish-e-Mohammed’, Maulana Masood Azhar is calling upon the Pakistani government to let the terrorists loose. This can only be attributed to the effect of the surgical strikes.

The Pakistani newspaper, ‘The News International’ had published a news report about the ‘Surgical Strikes’. It claimed that India never conducted such an operation by stating assurances from the German Ambassador. Also, to be noted were its claims that the Indian Foreign Secretary, S. Jaishankar had confessed this to the German ambassador. But the External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Vikas Swarup has rejected this news report while Jaishankar claimed that it was completely unsubstantiated.

To protect its Army’s prestige, the Pakistani media and strategic analysts are calling India’s ‘surgical strikes’ a bluff. However, the army has handed over a video footage of nearly 90 minutes of these surgical strikes to the government. Also, post this attack, the radio and wireless conversations between the Pakistani authorities and its administration were intercepted and published on Indian news channels. To add to this, one Indian news channel has also confirmed the Indian Army‘s attack by making a phone call to a police officer in PoK. Due to this sting operation, Pakistan’s allegation was exposed. According to this information, around 20 terrorists of ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba’ were killed in this attack. It is now getting clear that the Pakistani army is trying to delude its citizens by denying the occurrence of the ‘Surgical Strikes’ to avoid humiliation.

Various means of Pakistani media are being utilised for this purpose and the group of media that is faithful to the army is backing their efforts.