NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Tuesday said its strike on Pakistan army posts has indeed caused some damage.Major General Ashok Narula said the assault “has caused some damage to the Pakistan Army posts, which are supporting infiltrations. This is part of our overall strategy to counter terrorism.”
Elaborating the overall strategy, he said as part of counter-terrorism operations, “punitive fire assaults” across LOC are being undertaken by the Army. “Pakistan Army is providing support to armed infiltrators by engaging Indian forward troops from their weapon emplacements and pill-boxes closer to the LOC.”
“At times they have not even hesitated to target villages in the proximity of LOC. As part of our counter-terrorism strategy and to ensure that infiltration is curbed and initiative remains with us, the Indian Army proactively dominates LOC. While doing so, locations aiding infiltration of terrorists are being targeted and destroyed to deny advantage to terrorists thus curbing infiltration attempts,” he said.
Expecting a spike in infiltration bids with melting of snow and opening of passes providing ingress routes, Narula said operations like Naugam where four terrorists were neutralised on May20-21 are the instances.
This calls for even more pro-active counter-terrorism operations, he added. Incidentally, three soldiers were also killed while battling the infiltrators in this operation.
At present, nearly 250 terrorists are active in the Kashmir valley and this number includes at least 110 to 115 local young men who joined militant ranks over past few months. “Indian claims of destroying Pakistani post along LoC in Naushera Sector and firing by Pakistan Army on civilians across LoC are false,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a tweet.
The Sept 2016 assault
The Army had conducted strikes in PoK in Sep 2016 and destroyed several launch pads and Pak Army posts besides killing at least 35 militants.