Informed Pakistan about ‘surgical strikes’ before telling Indian public, claims Modi

The 2016 strikes on the country were aimed at sending a strong message to Islamabad, claims Indian PM

More than a year after India claimed to have conducted surgical strikes against Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that New Delhi tried to contact Islamabad before making news of the strikes public, The Times of India reported.

"India had repeatedly attempted to contact Pakistan government to inform them about the top-secret operation conducted by the Indian forces," claimed Modi while attending an event in London.

"I said before India gets to know, we should call Pakistan and tell them what we did. We were calling them since 11 am but they did not answer the phone. At 12 we spoke to them and then told the Indian media," elaborated the Indian prime minister.

The Pakistani military had strongly rejected Indian claims about the strikes as an “illusion being deliberately generated by the Indians to create false effects”.

"This quest by the Indian establishment to create media hype by rebranding cross-border fire as a surgical strike is fabrication of the truth. Pakistan has made it clear that if there is a surgical strike on Pakistani soil, the same will be strongly responded."



Modi further stated that the 2016 strikes on the country were aimed at sending a strong message to Islamabad, according to the Indian publication.

"We believe in peace. But we will not tolerate those who like to export terror. We will give back strong answers," alleged Modi and added that in such a case "India knows how to give a reply".



Indian Occupied Kashmir rape case

The Indian PM was also forced to address the numerous cases of sexual assault in the Hindu-majority country that have sparked outrage across India, although he stopped short of mentioning the rape case of the Muslim minor from Indian occupied Kashmir which prompted mass protests.

He said that rape is a matter of shame for the entire society, but should not be politicised.



"This is a matter of great concern for the country and these sinners are somebody's sons... The rape of a (daughter) is a matter of worry, a shame for the country," he said.

"Rape is rape. It cannot be tolerated. But should we compare the number of rapes in different governments? We cannot say there were this many rapes in our government and that many in yours. There cannot be a worse way to deal with this issue," he remarked.

The India premier is in the United Kingdom for a four-day visit of bilateral engagements as well as multilateral discussions as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

This article originally appeared in The Times of India