Former Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag on Friday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking bold decision by giving armed forces upper hand to launch cross border operations be it in Jammu and Kashmir or in north eastern part of the country to send stern messages to enemies.
He said that the surgical strikes in both Myanmar and PoK were ‘extremely successful’ and contributed significantly to building India’s image at national and global level.
“In Jun 2015, we conducted strikes in Myanmar and again in September 2016, we conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan. Both strikes were very successful, without any casualties to our jawans. It was a bold decision of PM Narendra Modi to approve surgical strikes,” Suhag, who was the Army Chief when these operations were carried out, said.
“The impact of such strikes is deterrence and in last one year we have not had any major incident,” he added.
In June 2015, the Indian Army had carried out a surgical strike along the India-Myanmar border on the camps of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) militants, days after an ambush in which terrorists killed 18 Army men in Manipur.
On the intervening night of September 28-29 in 2016, the Indian Army crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and conducted surgical strikes at terror launch-pad, causing heavy casualties to Pak backed terrorists. The operation was conducted days after the Uri terror attack in which 19 brave Indian jawans were martyred.
