Deterrence was 2016 surgical strike's aim: Former Army chief

The surgical strike carried out in 2016 across the LoC in Pakistan-administered Kashmir was aimed to deter (the enemy), and it was a success since there has not been any major incident since then, former Army chief General Dalbir Singh said on Friday.

Singh headed the Indian Army when the surgical strikes were carried out along the Myanmar border in 2015, and later across the Line of Control on September 28-29 night in 2016. He gave credit for the decisive stand on the strike to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"What is the aim of a surgical strike? First, that we cause casualty, much more, manifold, than what they caused to our brave soldiers... it was also to make sure we create a sense of insecurity that they are themselves insecure in their own land," Singh said on the sidelines of the launch of book 'Securing India The Modi Way' by Nitin A. Gokhale.

"What is also important is the impact of such strike. The impact of these strikes is deterrence -- in the last one year we did not have any major terror incident," the retired General said.

"It was a very bold decision of the Prime Minister to approve the surgical strike. So, the credit firstly goes to our Prime Minister for the strike," he said.

"The credit also goes to my able commanders and brave soldiers who executed these surgical strikes. I would say we are grateful to the Prime Minister for reposing faith and confidence in the Indian Army and we lived up to his expectations. With these surgical strikes, India's image has gone very high, national as well as internationally," Singh said.

The September 28-29 night strike on terror launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir came after a terror attack at an Indian Army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 19 soldiers were killed.

In June 2015, the Indian Army carried out the surgical strike along the India-Myanmar border on camps of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) militants, days after an ambush in which terrorists killed 18 Army men in Manipur.

--IANS

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