Hafiz Saeed's surgical strike claim riddled with factual holes

Even though Hafiz Saeed called the Akhnoor attack 'their version of a surgical strike', his claims about the strike do not hold up to closer scrutiny

Hafiz Saeed, who decided to term the Akhnoor terror attack a surgical strike against India, got many of his facts wrong. To begin with he stated that the mujahideens cleaned up 10 rooms, killed 30 soldiers and cleaned up the entire camp.

He called it 'their version of a surgical strike' although not once did he utter that it was his outfit, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which carried out the attack. He spoke about cleaning up 10 rooms, destroying the camp and killing 30. However, the fact of the matter is that three soldiers died after the terrorists set ablaze and shot at a camp.

There were two camps at the point where the terrorists entered. They managed to spot only one camp with four workers due to poor visibility. The other camp which had 10 workers completely skipped the eye of the terrorists. In all four persons were killed in the attack.

Saeed also claims that the terrorists carried out the attack and successfully returned to Pakistan. However, intelligence inputs suggest that the four terrorists are still holed up in India.

Intelligence agencies who have analysed the speech made by Saeed at a rally in Muzzafarabad say there is an element of desperation in him. We are looking at it in two ways. He feels that the leadership in Pakistan has failed to respond to India after the surgical strikes. Hence he has taken it upon himself to lead from the front and in the bargain show Nawaz Sharif in poor light. In his speech he does say that Modi responds to him, not Sharif.

The other is sheer desperation and an attempt to get the Kashmir bogey running again. The unrest has come to an end and Saeed with such a speech is only trying to provoke his terrorists into carrying out more attacks in India.

OneIndia News