From the President to former Prime Ministers to Chief Ministers to top political leaders, the Government on Thursday lost no time in reaching out to them on the surgical strikes, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself taking the lead.

Hours before convening the emergency meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at 11 am, Modi apprised President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the details of the outcome of surgical strikes.

For his part, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal besides Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor NN Vohra, who were asked to initiate the evacuation process of civilians staying in villages in a 10-km belt along the international borders in their respective States.

Singh then informed the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik respectively, who are also the heads of major political parties TMC, JD(U) and BJD. The Home Minister also spoke to TRS leader and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and informed them about the military action on terror launch pads, official sources said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj too went ahead meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apprise her of the situation even as the Home Minister called for an all-party meeting in North Block at 4pm with the available leaders in Delhi.

The CCS meeting was attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, DGMO Ranbir Singh and top PMO officials including Nripendra Mishra and PK Mishra.

The details of the meeting which ended by 11:45am came to public domain only after the DGMO conducted a joint press conference after 12 noon with MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup to announce the surgical strikes in PoK.

Incidentally, as per his initial schedule, the Prime Minister was to conduct a meeting to review the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan. The meeting was postponed, and instead the CCS met to discuss the 'successful strikes'.