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New Delhi/Srinagar : The Indian Army on Sunday mounted an artillery attack on at least four terror camps and Pakistani military positions across the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation to ceasefire violations meant to assist infiltrators, killing at least six soldiers of the neighbouring country and inflicting heavy terrorist casualties, General Bipin Rawat said.
In the Indian firing by 155mm guns — the mainstay of the artillery firepower of the army — 6-10 Pakistani soldiers and about a dozen terrorists were killed in the Neelam Valley opposite the Tangdhar sector along the LoC, people with direct knowledge of the operation said. The artillery used in the Indian response has a range of 24-30km.
The counter-attack by India came after two Indian Army soldiers and a civilian were killed in unprovoked Pakistani firing on Saturday evening at Karnah in J&K’s Kupwara district, according to the army. Three others were also injured in the Pakistani firing that left one house, two cowsheds and a rice godown completely destroyed.
“On the basis of reports that we have been getting, 6-10 Pakistani soldiers have been killed; three terror camps have been destroyed. There have been damages to a fourth camp too. Similar number of terrorists have also been killed. In the retaliatory action, we have caused severe damage to terrorist infrastructure. Terrorist camps opposite Tangdhar sector have been destroyed,” Rawat said.
“Last evening, an attempt was made in Tangdhar to infiltrate terrorists and we retaliated… It was decided that we target terror camps across the LoC. We had the coordinates of these camps,” the army chief added.
The army chief briefed defence minister Rajnath Singh about the Indian response on Sunday. Singh congratulated Gen Rawat and his men for taking resolute action against terrorists while avoiding civilian casualties.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sunday’s response could not be compared to the “surgical strikes” carried out against terror launch pads in 2016. On the intervening night of September 28-29 in 2016, the army carried attacked seven terror launch pads across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). The next day, it announced that India had mounted the offensive using Special Forces on the ground, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists.
Another official said that the calibrated escalation of area weapons was undertaken by India after the infiltration attempt on Saturday and that the army retains the right to respond in case the Pakistan Army continues to assist terrorist activities across Indian borders.
After the Indian action, Asif Ghafoor, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s armed forces, said that nine Indian soldiers were killed in its firing and two Indian bunkers were destroyed.
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