| MoD sets record straight, says no surgical strike before 2016 | | Congress embarrassed | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 10: In a matter of major embarrassment for the Congress party and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Right to Information (RTI) reply from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has officially confirmed that no such army expedition like Surgical Strikes had ever taken place before 2016.
This has come as a major blow to the Congress party and Manmohan Singh who had claimed that "his erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had carried out six surgical strikes during their tenure from 2004 to 2014".
There was only one surgical strike so far the Ministry of Defence has now confirmed.
"This section does not hold any data pertaining to surgical strikes if carried out before September 29, 2016," stated the Director General Military Operations of the Indian Army in response to an RTI filed by Jammu-based activist Rohit Choudhary.
Only a few days ago, senior Congress leader and former minister Kapil Sibal had also made an unverified claim that "the UPA government carried out surgical strikes in 2011 under the name of Operation Ginger".
It bears recalling that at around 5.30 a.m. on September 18, four terrorists attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the LoC in a pre-dawn ambush. They were said to have lobbed 17 grenades in three minutes. As a rear administrative base camp with tents fire, 17 army personnel were martyred during the attack. An additional 19 to 30 soldiers were reportedly injured.
Most of the soldiers martyred were from the 10th battalion, Dogra Regiment (10 Dogra) and 6th battalion (6 Bihar). |
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