India is today celebrating the second year of Surgical strike carried out by the Indian Army in 2016.

The strikes that were not only planned meticulously but were carried out with such military precision that the enemy across the border got the message that there will be retaliation each time they cross into India.

Sharing his thoughts with FE Online, Lt. General DS Hooda, former Commander of the Northern Army, said that, “There were attacks after attacks including Burhan Wani episode, Pathankot attack and followed by Uri attack were we lost our 19 soldiers. Our soldiers were asking us how we are going to respond. We had various options before us. We wanted to avenge the loss of our soldiers.”

“With this in mind we started planning our strike. And the surgical strike was the perfect way to send across a message to them. The glass ceiling was broken when we went in to strike and crossed the Line of Control,” Hooda added.

According to Hooda, there was enough panic and shock in the Pakistan camp when the strikes were carried out.

To a question if sharing the news about the strikes then and in future is the right way, the General pointed out that the message has to be conveyed that terrorism has to stop. “ We have always been on a defensive. But when the strikes were carried out the international community was supportive of us.”

Despite the surgical strike, infiltrations from Pakistan continue. To this the former general said that, “Infact if you look at the over all pattern there has been a change in pattern. If the infiltrations, fireworks and beheadings go on, the soldiers at the border will retaliate.”

The former DGMO of the Indian Army, from 2012 to 2014, Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, sharing his views with FE Online said, “The surgical strikes were carried out to deal with the increasing number of terrorists attacks. We have never really given them a befitting response. The strikes raised the costs of pakistans low cost high effct’ procy war. Our paitence had run out as Pakistan carried out terrorist strikes with impunity.” .

Bhatia said, “Also, some reports suggest that there have been no positive results after that. I don’t agree with this. For the first time the Prime minister of that country made a comment against his army chief by saying that such actions have isolated Pakistan (read terrorist attacks).

At a strategic level the strikes have kept the infiltration very low. It has also helped us in changing our counter terrorist policy”.

On the other hand Lt Gen Prakash Katoch, a former Lt Gen Special Forces, Indian Army in an article in Indian Defence Review, questions the timing of the celebrations. According to him, “First and foremost any raid is surgical unless one is using air and artillery that some militaries undertake in foreign lands not bothering about collateral damage, which the India Army does not indulge in. So the prefix of ‘surgical’ is just an embellishment by the government to dramatize what it let the Army do. Trans-border strikes have been undertaken much before this government came to power albeit what is being referred to as ‘surgical strikes’ was on a larger scale targeting multiple terrorist launched pads, which was possible with precise locations ‘provided’ to us, not from own sources

“It was no doubt an excellenct operation executed with precision by our special forces and it did convey a message to pakistan but it was at the tactical level,”says Katoch in his article.

Says Air Marshal M Matheswaran (Retd), “Border skirmishes across the line of Control is an ongoing affair. Aggressive actions and aggressive responses are regular affairs. Since Pakistan uses the proxy of insurgents to cross limits military norms, Indian Army responds even more aggressively. The surgical strike of 2016, is a larger planned affair but limited to border region like routine skirmishes. A strike should hit at deeper targets with deterrent outcomes on the adversary. But since the surgical strike, ceasefire violations and infiltration have only increased.”