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Showed restraint to avoid casualty, says govt

Last Updated 29 September 2016, 19:32 IST
The Indian Army wanted to strike deep into PoK, but restricted Wednesday night’s surgical action to less than five kilometres across the LoC to avoid civilian casualty, highly placed government sources said.

India took that calculated risk to send out a clear and stern message that militants will not go unpunished, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined after the September 18 Uri terrorist attack, but it did not also want to harm the neighbouring public.

The surprise military action was a result of intense planning by the Central government’s security managers and pooling of resources from intelligence agencies to share with the army for precise identification of about eight launch pads and small military camps.

These inputs were matched with satellite imagery to get the geographical positioning of the terror infrastructure beyond the Line of Control in Bhimber, Kel Lipa and Hot Spring sectors, and they were decimated, said government sources.

The sources said that at least two active military camps for honing the shooting skills of militants were also razed in the late-night strike by airborne special forces commandos and the operations were filmed for internal operational consumption as well as to show it to the diplomatic community to fix Pakistan’s lie.

Launch pads in Sudhanti, Balakot and Mangla, however, are still said to be active. The security forces have identified Kotli as a major launch pad,  followed by Topa Machan after analysing infiltration routes, patterns and intelligence inputs.

Government sources said that fighter aircraft were put in battle mode at forward locations, and border security forces were strengthened with additional deployment to face any advances from the Pakistan side of the fence on the International Border spread over Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
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(Published 29 September 2016, 19:32 IST)

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