No data on surgical strikes before 2016: Army refutes Congress claim

New Delhi, May 07: Refuting Congress claims that there were six surgical strikes during the Manmohan Singh led UPA government, a Right to Information (RTI) reply from the Ministry of Defence confirmed that no such army expeditions took place before 2016.

"This section does not hold any data pertaining to surgical strikes if carried out before September 29, 2016," stated the Director General Military Operations (DGMO) of the Indian Army in response to an RTI filed by Jammu-based activist Rohit Choudhary.

According to a report in The Indian Express, applicant Rohit Choudhary had sought information about how many surgical strikes on Pakistan were carried out between 2004 to 2014 and after September 2014, and how many of them were successful.

This came out after UPA leader claims that the Congress-led government had conducted around 6 surgical strikes in their term but never revealed them to seek votes.

The BJP, however, questioned the claims made by Singh. Alleging that the Congress has a "habit of lying," Union minister General VK Singh asked, "Will you please let me know which 'So-called Surgical Strike' are you attributing to my tenure as COAS. Am sure you must have hired some Coupta to invent another story."

Union minister Prakash Javadekar on May 2 tweeted about the RTI, saying, "Till recently, Congress was asking for proof of surgical strike. Now they say they have conducted 6 such strikes! An RTI enquiry has revealed that the first #SurgicalStrikes happened in 2016 and NOT before. One more false claim by Congress!"

The 2016 surgical strikes were carried out by Indian forces on terror camps across the Line of Control, 11 days after militants attacked an army camp at Uri killing 19 soldiers. Terror launch pads were destroyed and huge casualties inflicted among militants by Indian soldiers during the surgical strike.