Just a 25-member crack team of Para Special Force Commandos carried out the four-hour-long surgical strikes within Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) early on Thursday killing an estimated 50 State-sponsored jehadis, including some Pakistan Army regulars.
The entire operation was monitored live at the war room by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The live feed was streamed through helmet-mounted and shoulder-mounted cameras enabled with Global Positioning System, the sources said.
The Commandos of the 4 Para and 9 Para were divided into three sub-groups to conduct the precision strikes. The team crossed the line of Control (loC) from Balnoi Post in Poonch Sector and, after completing the operation, returned to a post in Rajouri Sector, sources said.
An artillery fire assault was made on three posts across the loC. Simultaneously, three staging posts across the loC were critically hit by a sub-group of the Special Forces. Two other sub-groups of the Para Commandos hit four other launch pads, the sources said.
Some of the terrorists were killed by the Para Commandos while they were hiding inside makeshift bunkers after escaping artillery fire by the Army before the launch of the surgical strikes. The entire movement of the crack team was also tracked by infrared drones and dedicated communication satellites.
The operation was supervised by a lieutenant-General-rank officer of Udhampur-based units of the Special Forces and the crack team was led by a Colonel-rank officer.
Trashing reports in Pakistan about Indian casualties during the operation, Army sources said here that a member of the team that carried out the surgical strikes received a minor injury during exfiltration, but it was not due to any enemy or terrorist action.
“One member of the team involved in the surgical operation received a minor injury during exfiltration. The injury is not on account of any enemy or terrorist action,” an official said.
By conducting the surgical raids, the NDA Government has raised the bar for future conduct of relations and peace talks with Pakistan, said political pundits adding, whichever party will be in power at the Centre will have to carry out similar strikes in the event of an attack by the jehadis. Currently, the agenda of the Government is clear that any attack by State-sponsored terrorists will be matched by a counter response like the one carried out on Thursday, an Intelligence official said.
Pakistan’s responses to the surgical strikes are limited as it itself dubs Kashmir as a disputed territory and the Indian Special Forces have hit terrorist hideouts and not Pakistan Army’s installations.
Pakistan-backed terror groups will also not be able to do much in the wake of heightened vigil across the country as all dimensions of a retaliatory action by Pakistan were factored in before the launch of the strikes, the official said.
Pakistan has reportedly mobilized its troops concentrated along the Afghanistan border to its frontiers with India.
Meanwhile, terrorist Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s Jamat-ud-Dawah led demonstrations in lahore and offered prayers for the jehadis killed in action on Thursday.