Surgical-strikes video is BJP's attempt to distract people: Mayawati

Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Friday said that the surgical strikes video released in public domain is nothing but an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to distract people.

Mayawati's remark comes days after the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of using the surgical strikes for political gains after a video of the same was released.

"Releasing video of surgical strike is nothing but an attempt by this (BJP) Government to distract people from their enormous failures before 2019. If they did it with intention of showing proof, then why did they not release video when strike was carried out?," Mayawati told ANI.

On a related note, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala on Thursday while interacting with media had said that the BJP 'shamelessly' used the surgical strikes for their benefit during the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.

"The nation needs to be cautioned, whenever Modi Government starts failing, whenever Amit Shah's BJP starts losing, they misuse the valour of the Army for their political benefit," Surjewala had stated.

On Wednesday, the video footage of the September 2016 surgical strikes was released in public domain.

The strikes were conducted by the Indian Army in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the Uri terror attack wherein 18 Army personnel were killed.