India to not put surgical strike evidence in public domain

Will review Pakistan's MFN status: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as well as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said the video footage of the September 29 surgical strikes by the Indian Army was unlikely to be put in the public domain.

The government also said Pakistan has conveyed to it “verbally” that it was “considering” evidence that India had given to it on the involvement of Pakistan-based terror outfits in both Uri and Pathankot terror attacks.

Sources termed as positive reports that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has warned his country’s army to not shield those involved in the 26/11 Mumbai, January 2016 Pathankot and September 18 Uri terror attacks.

However, MEA said India would review the Most Favoured Nation, or MFN, status it had granted to Pakistan in 1996. “Promoting shared prosperity with neighbours has been government's priority but terror cannot be the commodity exported. We will undertake a review based on our security and trade interests,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. He also confirmed that the National Security Advisors of the two countries have been in touch in recent days, but India remained committed to not making details of such meetings public.

On the issue of releasing video evidence, sources said releasing it would not serve the objective of de-escalating tensions, particularly when India has succeeded in its objective of isolating Islamabad internationally as well as in South Asia.

The government is also aware of the other pitfall of releasing the video — its veracity is bound to be suspected, both domestically as well as by Pakistan. The sense, both in South Block as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is that the surgical strikes and India’s diplomacy have achieved its objectives. It has assuaged domestic political sentiment and weakened Pakistan’s propaganda on the alleged human rights violations by Indian security forces in Kashmir.

“What the government puts out or not is determined solely by national security and will continue to be so,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. He dismissed Pakistan’s denial of the surgical strikes as usual. “Elimination of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mansoor was met with similar denials.  But we all know the truth,” he said.

Swarup said the Indian Army carried out counter-terrorism operation on September 29 with surgical precision. “The desired result has been obtained. The intended message has been conveyed,” he said.

The MEA refused to comment on a report by Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn that the Pakistan PM has warned his country’s army of Islamabad’s international isolation.

According to the report, Sharif in a meeting with army and ISI brass asked them to take action against terror outfits. The spokesperson for the Pakistan PM termed the report speculative, misleading and factually incorrect.