New Delhi: In a significant development, the Congress party on Thursday claimed that ‘six surgical strikes’ were carried during the UPA regime. The claim was made by senior Congress leader Rajiv Shukla, who also listed the dates when these ‘surgical strikes’ were conducted.
Speaking at a press conference, Shukla said six surgical strikes were conducted when the Congress-led UPA was in power while two were carried out during the tenure of late former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“We never did chest thumping. The one who did only one surgical strike is patting his back. Neither Dr Manmohan Singh nor Vajpayee did a press conference on it,” Shukla told the press.
It may be noted that Vajpayee was PM between 1999 and 2004, while the UPA ruled the country from 2004 to 2014.
Listing out the surgical strikes, Shukla said the first was conducted on June 19, 2008 in Bhattal Sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The second was conducted on Aug 30-September 1, 2011 in Sharda Sector across Neelam River Valley in Kel.
The third surgical strike was carried out on January 6, 2013 at Sawan Patra Checkpost; fourth on July 27-28, 2013 at Nazapir Sector; fifth on August 6, 2013 at Neelam Valley; and sixth surgical strike on January 14, 2014.
Two such surgical strikes that were conducted during the Vajpayee tenure, as per Shukla, were on January 21, 2000 at Nadala Enclave across the Neelam River and on September 18, 2003 at Baroh Sector in Poonch. |
