New Delhi: The Congress party was left red faced on Monday as Lt. General Ranbir Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command of the Indian Army confirmed that the first surgical strike was carried out by armed forces in September 2016 to avenge Uri attack. Also Read - Varanasi's Shivangi Singh to be Rafale Squadron's First Woman Fighter Pilot | All You Need to Know

A few days ago, the Congress party had claimed that armed forces had conducted ‘six surgical strikes’ during the UPA regime. Senior Congress leader Rajiv Shukla had also listed the dates when these ‘surgical strikes’ were conducted. Also Read - Dramatic Rescue: Chhattisgarh Man Trapped on Tree For Over 16 Hours Rescued by IAF Chopper | Watch

“Congress never tried to take credit of these strikes. The one who did only one surgical strike is patting his back. Neither Dr Manmohan Singh nor Vajpayee addressed a press conference to take credit for these strikes,” Shukla had said. Also Read - Gunjan Saxena The Kargil Girl: IAF Raises Objections Over 'Inaccurate Presentation' of Gender Bias in The Film

However, rejecting grand old party’s claims, GOC Northern Command said,”Few days ago DGMO said in a reply to an RTI that the first surgical strike happened in Sep 16′, I don’t want to go into what political parties say, they’ll be given an answer by government.What I told you is a statement of fact,” news agency ANI quoted Singh as saying.

Nearly 10 days after militants attacked the Army base camp in Uri that left 18 jawans dead on September 18, 2016, India carried out surgical strikes in PoK, killing around 40 terrorists and seven terror launch pads.

Meanwhile, talking about Balakot air strikes, Singh asserted,”Airstrikes by IAF on Balakot terrorist infrastructure was a major achievement, wherein our aircraft went deep into enemy territory and struck terror launchpads. Pakistanis carried out air operations the following day, however they were given a befitting reply.”