In a radical break from its Pakistan policy and in what effectively changes the rules of the game for its terror-sponsor neighbour, India announced that army special forces had carried out “surgical strikes“ in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, targetting and destroying terror launch pads and killing terrorists.
The decision to go public was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) have been conducted by India earlier, but never acknowledged. Going public with the strike that happened over Wednesday night marks a huge strategic and tactical shift.
The message to Pakistan is that India henceforth reserves the right to launch strikes, including preemptive ones, to counter terror from across the border.
The first military response after Uri was followed by India putting its troops in the Western Command on high alert while telling Pakistan and the world that Indian forces targetted terrorists operating out of Pakistan-controlled territory, not Pakistani armed forces.
While India said it was ready for any response from Pakistan, those familiar with high-level tactical and strategic thinking in New Delhi were of the opinion that Islamabad may not respond aggressively, at least not immediately.
Pakistan's response was to deny any surgical strike by India and claim that cross-border shelling killed two Pakistani soldiers. This claim, strategists here said, seemed to limit Pakistani military's range of options, as cross-border shelling is common enough not to warrant a special response. India informed Pakistan about the strike and said it has “no plans for further continuation“ but that the armed forces are “fully prepared for any contingency that may arise“.
Although the reading is that Pakistani response won't be dramatic, villages along the Punjab border are being evacuated and army formations have been put on standby for possible retaliation.
In the sensitive Northern Command, where the action was conceptualised and executed, the postings of top officers have been frozen and all border units have been put on operational alert in anticipation of an increase in terror attacks and cross-border firing.
Among the instructions given out in the Northern Command is a message that at no point within cantonment areas can more than 10 soldiers gather at a spot. Leave and posting have been cancelled in the Northern and Western Commands as well -the two army formations that border sensitive areas in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian Air Force is already carrying out a special readiness exercise along the western border while the Indian Navy is planning a major show of strength in the Arabian Sea with a naval exercise. Officials said the strike, carried out by at least two Para Commando units, targetted seven launch pads and were planned over the past week, with scenarios and contingencies rehearsed and the top political leadership kept in the loop. They were based on specific inputs that terrorists were planning to cross over.
The Director-General of Military Operations, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, informed his Pakistani counterpart of the strike with an assurance that the target was terror infrastructure and not the Pakistani establishment.
While the number of casualties is not immediately known, it is estimated that 30-35 terrorists were at the locations targetted by special forces. Two Indian Army soldiers are believed to have been injured in the attack but were safely evacuated after the strike.
Late on Thursday evening, India confirmed that a soldier belonging to an anti-infiltration unit had inadvertently crossed over to the other side of LoC. The Indian side, however, rubbished Pakistani reports that eight Indian Army personnel had been killed.
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