A day after terrorists stormed an Army camp in Uri killing 17 soldiers, India on Monday said it reserved the right to respond at the time and place of its choosing and has desired capability to respond to such blatant acts of aggression and violence.
Sounding a warning to Pakistan, Director General Military Operations (DGMO) lt General Ranbir Singh said the Indian Army has displayed considerable restraint while handling the terrorist situation both along the line of Control (loC) and in the hinterland. “However, we have the desired capability to respond to such blatant acts of aggression and violence as deemed appropriate by us. We reserve the right to respond to any act of the adversary at a time and place of our choosing.”
Meanwhile, one more soldier succumbed to injury on Monday, talking the death toll in the Uri terror attack to 18. At least, 25 other soldiers are undergoing treatment at Army Hospital, Srinagar.
The DGMO’s statement came amid reports that the Government was considering options like conducting “surgical” strikes on terrorist training camps in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and artillery fire on Pakistan Army posts that help the terrorists infiltrate into Kashmir from across the loC.
Incidentally, then Army Chief General Bikram Singh had issued a similar warning in January 2013 when two Indian soldiers were beheaded by militants near the loC in Poonch. “We’ll give them a fitting reply...We will respond at a time and place of our choosing,”
he had said.
Following the Pathankot airbase attack earlier this year, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had also said the same.
The DGMO, who spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Sunday on the hotline after the Army found some items with Pakistan markings from the four slain terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad, expressed serious concern saying that medicine with Pakistan markings were also found from the terrorists.
He said the Army operation in Uri ended on Monday after successful conduction of detailed search of the area in and around the military brigade.
From the four killed terrorists, the Army recovered four AK-47 rifles, four underbarrel grenade launchers, 39 underbarrel grenades, five hand grenades, two radio sets, two GPSs, two map sheets, two matrix sheets, one mobile phone and a large number of food and medicine packets having Pakistani markings.
The DGMO said infiltration attempts by terrorists this year in comparison to the past three to four years have shown a marked increase. “It indicated a desperate attempt from across the loC to infiltrate more terrorists into Kashmir with a view to create disturbance and foment unrest in our area.”
Giving statistics to back his charge, lt Gen Singh said the Indian Army foiled 17 infiltration bids along the loC in 2016 so far. Of 110 terrorists eliminated in Jammu & Kashmir, 31 were killed while trying to infiltrate via loC. The loC has seen more than 70 infiltration bids this year as compared to less than 35 in the last three to four years. In fact, infiltration started early this year with the months of January and February recording at least 25 successful bids as compared to nil for the corresponding period in the last two years.
Officials said infiltration from across the lOC generally starts from April after snow melts and ingress routes become easy to traverse. However, this year due to less snow, infiltrations started in January itself.