Surgical strike was 'well organized and planned', reveals special paratrooper

Paratrooper, who was involved in the surgical strike of the Indian Army last year in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, described the bold action today as a "just another operation" for special forces. Captain-level officer in the fourth unit of special force said that the strike was “well organized and planned” to set a message for Pakistan.

It started when India had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) on the midnight of 28 and 29 September 2016 and had surgical strikes on seven terrorist camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It was a major action against the militants, who were preparing to infiltrate into India through the Line of Control. This strike was done during the two weeks of the attack of Pakistani terrorists on the military camp in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir. 19 soldiers were killed in this terrorist attack.

Sharing his experiences at the country's first "Military Literature" festival celebration, the officer said that his unit had only 10 days to plan and execute this surgical strike. The official told the news agency PTI, “This was a large-scale operation. Once we were given a go ahead, we went ahead with normal preparedness. To be very frank, it was just another operation for us. But it was a large-scale operation, wherein the strength was more, the damage and the attrition we caused was much more than other operations.”

“We did not tell our neighboring units (about the strikes). The most important thing (in such strikes) is surprise (element for targets). When you reach there, sit down and just observe and wait for the time. There were three targets (places) actually, the 4th para troops took on two of them and the 9th para troops on the third one. So, there were three strikes carried out in conjunction at three different places, three different targets and I was part of one of that,” he said.