Former DGMO denies all claims of surgical strikes during UPA regime

New Delhi: Former director general of military operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia denied the claims of Congress party regarding the surgical strikes being conducted during the UPA government. He said that the strike that was conducted against the terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) on September 29 last were in a different league from the operations of the past.

“The two kinds of operations simply cannot be compared. While the earlier ones were localised cross-border operations that were planned and executed at a small, tactical level, the September 29 operation was very, very special,” said the former DGMO.

He further stated that these surgical strike were very deliberate and delicate operations, and totally different in scale, dimension and impact of earlier operations across the LoC. “The surgical strike demonstrated the country's strategic resolve,” he said.

What else he said:

• Congratulating the Indian Army for the successful strikes of September 29, Lieutenant General Bhatia said, the surgical strikes brought together ‘all elements of our national power’, including the diplomatic, economic, information and warfare.
• “The terror attack on the Army base in Uri had tested our patience and crossed our ‘red lines’,” he stated.
• He further said that the strikes were necessary to make them pay for what they had done.
• “The planning for surgical strikes were at the highest level and they were executed with a great amount of detail. We have called Pakistan's bluff, there will be ramifications within Pakistan," said Lt Gen Bhatia (retd).

It may be mentioned that the Congress had claimed earlier that it was not the first time the surgical strikes took place. The party had attacked BJP-led NDA government and said that it was showing immaturity and is politicising the issue of national security.

Stating that the central government is indulging into needless chest thumping the Congress had claimed the surgical strikes had taken place earlier in the UPA regime on September 1, 2011, July 28 2013 and January 4, 2014.