Indian army chief reiterates threats of ‘surgical strikes’ at LoC

General Bipin Rawat says his troops are ready to send infiltrators to their graves

Nearly a year after India claimed eliminating “terror launch pads” across the Line of Control (LoC) through “surgical strikes”, the head of its military on Monday warned to repeat the exercise to “eliminate staging areas for terrorists in Kashmir”.

“Terrorists will keep coming because the [terror] camps are operational there [across the LoC]. Even we are ready. We will keep receiving them [infiltrators] to dispatch them two-and-a-half feet below the ground,” the NDTV quoted General Bipin Rawat.



In September last year, Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh, the director general military operations of India, claimed at a news conference that India’s special forces had conducted ‘surgical strikes’ across the LoC to thwart attacks on some of India’s biggest cities — a claim immediately ripped to shreds by Pakistan’s military. Interestingly, Pakistan Army after firmly denying the claims of strikes also took independent journalists to the LoC at Baghsir, 20 kilometres from Bhimber to show the situation on ground.

Tensions between the two arch rivals have been boiling since the Indian government accused Pakistan-based militants of launching an assault on an army base in Uri sector of occupied Kashmir last year that killed 19 Indian army soldiers. “The strike was a message we wanted to communicate to them and they have understood what we mean... that things could follow up, if required,” General Rawat warned.



Frequent incidents of cross-border fire have been witnessed since a heightened situation in occupied Kashmir. More than 100 protesters have lost their lives in the valley while dozens blinded by use of pellet guns. Pakistan and India have been at loggerheads since the killing of a populist rebel leader Burhan Wani by the occupied forces in the valley in July, 2016.