Parrikar hails military for Myanmar border strike

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Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday lauded the armed forces for their "surgical strike" on the India-Myanmar border and for their relief and rescue operations in India and abroad.

Addressing the armed forces on the eve of India's 69th Independence Day, the minister also expressed solidarity with the kin of soldiers who lost their lives.

"You are performing the task of protecting the nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity as also defending the motherland from the destructive designs of anti-national forces," he said.

The minister said the Indian Army's "surgical strike" on the Indo-Myanmar border had won admiration from one an all.

"The whole nation was in full admiration of your daring operation against the insurgents which you undertook very creditably along the Indo-Myanmar border," Parrikar said.

"I compliment the Special Forces for undertaking this surgical strike smoothly and without any casualty on our side."

He also said that the armed forces have "successfully and effectively repulsed all ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir from across the border and attempts of terrorists to infiltrate into the country".

The armed forces have been at the "forefront of massive relief and rescue operations, both in India and outside", he added.

"Be it providing succour to the flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, northeast and, more recently, to the victims of the devastating earthquake in Nepal or evacuation of Indian and foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen.

"As friendly neighbours, our armed forces were also the first to respond to the drinking water crisis in the Maldives when its desalination plants shut down," he said.