Contradicting Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar’s claims on surgical strike, carried out by the special forces of the Indian Army on the terrorist launching pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on September 29, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said that the Army has carried out the surgical strikes earlier as well.

While briefing the parliamentary panel on External Affairs, the foreign secretary has been quoted by the MPs as saying, “The Army had carried out target specific, limited-caliber, counter-terrorist operations across the LoC in the past too but this is for the first time the government has gone public about it.”

Earlier, the defense minister Manohar Parrikar had stated that the Indian Army has conducted such surgical strike for the first time and had denied claims by the Congress that these attacks have been done in the past as well. Many military officials said the previous attacks were the ‘covert operations’ and agreed with Parrikar’s claims that the surgical strike were undertaken for the first time.

Although Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attended the meet, he did not ask any questions, according to the reports.

The foreign secretary further told that even though India has been engaging with Pakistan post the September 29 surgical strikes, no calender has been made so far regarding the future engagement and its level with Islamabad. He said that people-to-people contact would continue and there was no plan to stop.

Answering a question on the casualty they could inflict on the terrorists, the officials added that the Army had crossed the LoC to carry out surgical strikes and not to collect evidence.

Speaking on UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan’s claim that they have not noticed any reports of firing across the LoC, during the surgical strikes took place, Jaishankar said that as panel chairman Shashi Tharoor had been associated with the body, he would not like to say anything.

By Prajakt K