PM Narendra Modi returns from the US, reveals why he couldn’t sleep all night three years ago

india

Updated: Jul 05, 2020 21:57 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Indian soldiers on the third anniversary of the 2016 surgical strike on terrorist launchpads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and said he couldn’t sleep on the night of September 28, exactly three years ago. He was addressing BJP leaders and workers gathered to welcome him from his week-long US visit on Saturday evening at the Palam airport.

“It was also the night of September 28 three years ago when I couldn’t sleep all night, waiting for the phone to ring, that night of September 28 scripted a golden story of our soldiers valour who conducted the surgical strike,” he said and added, “I bow before the courage of our soldiers today.”

On the intervening night of September 28-29, 2016, the Army had carried out surgical strikes on seven terror launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC) in PoK. It had then announced on September 29, 2016 that India had conducted surgical strikes on terror camps along the LoC using ground forces, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists.

Sentries at the launchpads were neutralised by snipers before the troops went in and finished the job. Barring one soldier who stepped on a landmine, all teams returned to their bases by 9 am on September 29.

Remembering that operation, the Prime Minister said, “That day marked the victory of India’s brave soldiers, who did surgical strike and made the country proud.”

Pakistan had denied the operation happened and called India’s claim of surgical strike as “farcical”

On June 28, 2018, more video clips of the surgical strike were released showing terrorists’ bunkers and military installations being blown up. The video clips appeared to have captured images from cameras mounted on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Thermal Imaging (TI) from cameras used by the Army to monitor the operation.