No gain: India, Pak still locked in a cycle of bloody exchanges 1 yr after surgical strike

A year has passed since the much vaunted 'surgical strikes' across the line of control, in the wake of the Uri debacle

LATEST NEWS : On the intervening night of September 29 in 2016, the Indian Army conducted a surgical strike in Pakistan. The operation that went on for over five hours not only dealt a blow to terrorists planning attacks in India, it also avenged the Uri attack where 19 Army personnel were killed. This writer explains what India has, and has not achieved over the last one year.

A year has passed since the much vaunted ‘surgical strikes’ across the line of control, in the wake of the Uri debacle, in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed before the four attackers could be neutralized. Divergent claims have been made regarding the impact of the strikes beyond the initial claims of “significant casualties, caused to terrorists and those providing support to them.” Unconfirmed reports indicate that at least 50 terrorists and two Pakistan Army handlers were killed in these strikes; there were no Indian casualties.

No strategic or tactical initiative can be correctly assessed for its success or failure unless its original and intended objectives are clearly known. In November 2016, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that the strikes were conducted to target “launch pads along the Line of Control(LoC)”, where terrorists had “positioned themselves to carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and in various metros in other States. The operations were focused on ensuring that these terrorists do not succeed in their motive to cause destruction and endanger the lives of our citizens.”

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