India launches strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan

By AT Editor on September 29, 2016 in India, South Asia, Top News

By Sanjeev Miglani and Asad Hashim

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters): India said on Thursday it had conducted “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, making its first direct military response to an attack on an army base it blames on Pakistan.

Indian army’s director general of military operations Lt General Ranbir Singh speaks during a media briefing in New Delhi, September 29. REUTERS/Stringer

Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed in exchanges of fire and in repulsing an Indian “raid”, but denied that India had made any targeted strikes across the de facto frontier that runs through the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
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The cross-border action inflicted significant casualties, the Indian army’s head of operations told reporters in New Delhi, while a senior government official said Indian soldiers had crossed the border to target militant camps.
The Indian announcement followed through on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning that those Delhi held responsible “would not go unpunished” for a Sept. 18 attack on an Indian army base at Uri, near the Line of Control, that killed 18 soldiers.
The strikes also raised the possibility of a military escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan that would wreck a 2003 Kashmir ceasefire.
Lt General Ranbir Singh, the Indian army’s director general of military operations (DGMO), said the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on “very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves … with an aim to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes”.
Singh said he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation.
India’s disclosure of such strikes was unprecedented, said Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, and sent a message not only to his own people but to the international community.
“India expects global support to launch more focused action against Pakistan,” Sahni told Reuters. “There was tremendous pressure on the Indian prime minister to prove that he is ready to take serious action.”

http://atimes.com/2016/09/india-says-firing-continues-across-frontier-with-pakistan/