New Delhi : Bits and pieces of information is slowly coming out on how the Indian Army”s Special Forces carried out the most successful surgical strikes on Pakistani terrorists” launch pads close to the Line of Control (LoC) across 200 to 250 km on the chilly night of September 29.
The moonless night was specially chosen to carry out the massive operation under the cover of darkness without detection by the enemy, strategy for which was cleared by Prime Minister Modi on September 23 when he visited the defence ministry”s top secret war room at Raisina Hill’s South Block and discussed the course of action after the Uri massacre of Indian jawans. The three service chiefs and the NSA, Ajit Doval, briefed him and thus began the whole exercise.
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency, swung into action deploying its human assets closest to the eight demarcated launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that were identified by the ISRO”s earth-observation satellites by zooming their cameras all over the LoC.
Inside Pakistan, RAW activated its assets in Rawalpindi.
Three days after the PM’s go-ahead, NSA Doval held a key meeting with the three Service chiefs and the intelligence heads on September 26 to finalise the operational details on how to infiltrate the terrain held by three divisions of the Pakistan Army. Soon, Mi-17 transport helicopters ferried the “Ghatak” commandos and their equipment to the forward areas along the LoC. They were drawn up from the 6 Bihar and 10 Dogra battalions that had suffered casualties in the Uri attack on September 18 as they were already in the mindset of revenge.
Finally, the assault began around 4 am on September 29 when the long-distance aircraft flew high at 35,000 feet to be beyond the range of the enemy radars and dropped 30 commandos, who parachuted, fully armed with Kalashnikovs, Tavors, rocket-propelled guns and thermobaric weapons on a dark, cold moonless night to ambush the terror assets on the rugged Himalayan terrain of PoK.
Simultaneously, seven other crews of the dauntless Special Forces crawled and slithered through the Pakistani barricades across the LoC. All eight teams of the deadly warriors reached their targets without detection and stormed them in sleep, annihilating them and the guards using snipers with silencers. A sudden thunder of explosions, bombs and gunfire came at the end. Images of the assault were recorded by the commandos on their still cameras. None in the Army is ready to vouch for any video footage of the action that went on for nearly four hours.
The loud noise of the surgical strikes could have alerted the Pakistan Army on the LoC but at the same time the Indian artillery units on the Indian side carried out a synchronised diversionary fire to confuse the other side, pounding the enemy posts. Pakistan Army retaliated heavily. The loud noise and confusion along the LoC was enough for the Indian commandos to slip back unchallenged. The enemy troops had scurried to their bunkers, leaving the terrain clear for the teams to return to the Indian side. Those who had descended using parachutes too crossed back on foot.
The objective successfully achieved, all commandos were back to their base by 9 am. Even before the Pakistan Army could perceive what hit them, Modi summoned the Cabinet Committee on Security to review the outcome and asked the DGMO to go public with the success story. Rest is the long story of Pakistan”s denials and claim of its two soldiers” death to a heavy exchange of fire between the two armies. Sources say these two soldiers were eliminated by the returning commandos and the Indian side was firing only to provide them cover for the safe return.
