Should Indian Government Have Publicised Surgical Strike?

Introduction

The previous governments had also given nod for the Indian army to cross the Line of Control (LOC) and International Border (IB) and inflict maximum damage to the enemy positions that support the incursion. These cross-border surgical strikes were also undertaken to avenge the beheading and killing of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani rangers in the past. During those times, the governments that ordered the surgical strikes chose to stay mum to keep secrecy. The decision to keep the idea of surgical strikes under wraps was to help the army to do the cross-border attack on the enemy post in stealthy way so that greatest damage could be inflicted on them. The defense experts are of the belief that the surprise elements also enable the armed forces to come back after the surgical strike to the original place.  In this article, we would be looking at the reasons why the earlier governments kept these moves away from the media limelight.

Recent Surgical Strike

Two weeks back, the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)-led Indian government decided to give nod for a surgical attack across the border in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This nod was given to avenge the attack on Indian soldiers residing in Uri Army camp. The decision was to kill the terrorists assembling at launch pads near border.  During the reconnaissance, the Indian Army intelligence unit had found that Pakistani rangers were assisting the terrorists to move across the border. The unit watched the foreign army soldiers and terrorists for a week to plan the attack. After the successful completion of the task, the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) arranged a meeting with the media to tell the world about the surgical strike. Since then, the political parties have engaged in the slug-fest to take the credit for the attack, especially the BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC). This has given the fodder for the Pakistani civilian and military leaderships to trade charges against the Indian government. They alleged that Indian government unnecessarily transgressed the border and caused damages to their properties near the international border. This also enabled the enemy army to stay ready for further attacks by the Indian forces.

Previous History of Cross-border Attack

Recently, a reputed national daily “The Hindu” came out with an editorial claiming that it has a document revealing the earlier surgical attacks against the Pakistani army posts across LOC and IB. Citing the documents, the daily stated that the previous attacks against the enemy army positions was undertaken to avenge the beheading of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani rangers. The reputed daily showed through the document that the previous surgical strikes took place in the year 2011. In response to the beheading of the two Indian soldiers, Indian soldiers attacked an army formation across the LOC in the enemy territory in the early morning and killed 7 or 8 enemy soldiers and planted a grenade below a dead body to further cause the damage. The Indian soldiers came back to the Indian Territory without any injury. However, it was not made public to keep the operation as secret.  Therefore, enemy country could not claim the damage for the fear of getting trapped aiding the terrorist incursion. This enabled the Indian army to plan and execute such attacks at will.