NEW DELHI: The North Block on Tuesday scotched claims by Indian National Congress that the United Progressive Alliance government had carried out were six surgical strikes before 2016 on Pakistan. A Right to Information reply from the Ministry of Defence confirmed that no such army expedition took place.
There was only one surgical strike so far the ministry confirmed."This section does not hold any data pertaining to surgical strikes if carried out before September 29, 2016," stated the Director General Military Operations of the Indian Army in response to an RTI filed by Jammu-based activist Rohit Choudhary.
To a query asking whether any surgical strike took place before September 2016, as retaliation to Uri terror attack, the ministry said they had no data regarding any such assaults. The DGMO also said there were no casualties to the Indian Army personnel.
Congress had recently said that six surgical strikes were carried out during its tenure, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mocked at the claims. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said on Saturday that PM Modi had insulted the Indian Army by his comment that UPA's surgical strikes were in video games.
"The Army isn't Modi's personal property. Surgical strikes were done by the Indian Army, not Congress. But when he says they were video games, he insults the Indian Army. The records are available," Rahul said.
A few days ago, Congress leader Kapil Sibal had also said that the UPA government carried out surgical strikes in 2011 under the name of Operation Ginger.