Cautioning that Pakistan continues with its "abhorrent acts" by aiding and abetting terrorism and cross-border infiltration from across the line of Control (loC), Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday justified the surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) last year.
In his address to the troops on the occasion of Independence Day, Jaitley without naming Pakistan said despite repeated requests to "our Western neighbor not to use our territory occupied by it not only to train terrorists but also use it as launch pad for pushing these militants into India, such nefarious activities continued."
"We ran out of patience as these terrorists were not only targeting our Armed Forces but also civilians. Based on specific and credible inputs about some terrorist teams having positioned themselves at launch pads along lOC to carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states, the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes on September 29 at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists," he said.
The operations were focused on ensuring that these terrorists did not succeed in their design to cause destruction and endanger the lives of our citizens. During these counter terrorist operations significant casualties were caused to terrorists and those providing support to them, Jaitley said.