What did surgical strikes achieve?

At least six militants attacked an army camp in north Kashmir on Sunday night, killing one jawan and wounding another, two weeks after a similar attack killed 19 soldiers and ratcheted up tensions between India and Pakistan.

confuzzled dude wrote:

At least six militants attacked an army camp in north Kashmir on Sunday night, killing one jawan and wounding another, two weeks after a similar attack killed 19 soldiers and ratcheted up tensions between India and Pakistan.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bsf-jawan-killed-in-militant-attack-on-army-camp-in-baramulla/story-SLsNEI4B16oZ5Lg4et5q3K.html

Weren't they supposed to keep militants at bay?

ashdoc wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

At least six militants attacked an army camp in north Kashmir on Sunday night, killing one jawan and wounding another, two weeks after a similar attack killed 19 soldiers and ratcheted up tensions between India and Pakistan.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bsf-jawan-killed-in-militant-attack-on-army-camp-in-baramulla/story-SLsNEI4B16oZ5Lg4et5q3K.html

Weren't they supposed to keep militants at bay?

they were supposed to take revenge for uri attack and restore honour of the units which lost the men . 

pakistani retaliation is expected , in fact on a more major scale . that is why armed forces are on readiness and leave of soldiers is cancelled . kharga corps ( our strike corps situated at ambala , which has 50 percent of the offensive power of our army) is getting ready for war if it happens .

the situation is fluid as of now . but at least it is not like the congressi reaction of doing nothing .

And yet, there is something about the press briefing today that created a sense of unease. It isn’t as if the Indian army has never earlier taken precipitous action against Pakistani targets across the LoC. This certainly isn’t the first time that Indian forces have struck suspected jihadists across the border in peace time. It happened on a few occasions during the Vajpayee era, allegedly with devastating effect. Needless to say, those incursions are said to have led to significant casualties on the Pakistani side, even resulting in a temporary fall in infiltration attempts into India by Pakistan-based terrorists. Unlike the present instance, however, India’s special operations in Pakistan were kept secret and never revealed to the public.

In the long scheme of things, therefore, New Delhi’s decision to make a media spectacle of the Indian Army’s strike across the LoC may turn out to be an imprudent one. Far from testing the Pakistan military’s threshold of escalation, it may have unwittingly served to lower it.

India’s admission and celebration of an alleged “surgical strike” against “terrorist launchpads” across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir is a serious cause for worry.

Not because there is something wrong with taking responsibility of your actions, especially when they involve violence. For, that reflects maturity and control over the situation. Even enjoying the sense of security that sensible use of force instils among the people of a nation, which is frustrated with a neighbour unwilling to stop supporting militants, is also understandable.

The problem begins when the political and military leadership confuses its ways and means with strategic ends.

This latest “surgical strike”, then, is actually an old phenomenon being heavily reported by the media as something new. That such cross-border firing happened in early 2015 (leave aside pre-2003) and did not reduce the actual threat of cross-border infiltration, which has generally been on a downward trend over the past few years, is also being missed.

Nonetheless, terming these old-style tactics “surgical strikes” is surely new, and mostly is in response to the demand for such strikes by those seeking revenge.

truthbetold wrote:So every one from all major Indian news papers, major Indian defense experts and world wide observers are all not very smart. Only you, this particular author, and Daruwala are smart. But you go around criticizing Trump for making up facts.

India will neither forgive nor forget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared less than a week after the Uri outrage. It wasn’t just rhetoric: Modi had already okayed a strike against Pakistani terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC).
The decision to punish Pakistan was conveyed to defence minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on September 23, and the build-up to D-day began the next day.
It was no rash decision. The diplomatic route was chosen before unsheathing the iron fist. Immediately after the September 18 attack on the Indian Army at Uri, Modi called Doval for information on the perpetrators and how they managed to get inside the brigade headquarters.
The Pakistan connection became evident from the GPS sets found on the four dead terrorists as well as from the interrogation of their two guides caught by Uri villagers.
Pakistan’s high commissioner to India Abdul Basit was summoned on September 21 and given a protest letter detailing the involvement of a terror group based in his country. Pakistan chose denial as its response, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raising Kashmir in his speech at the United Nations.
That was the inflection point, when the idea of a military response began to crystallise.
Late on September 22, Modi, Parrikar and Doval were briefed by director general of military operations Lt General Ranbir Singh on LoC strike options as well as the posture of the Pakistan army. Army chief General Dalbir Singh was present at this briefing in the War Room of the ministry of defence. By this time, Pakistan had activated all its radars along the LoC and its forces were on high alert.
After examining the options put up by Doval in consultation with the three service chiefs, the surgical strike option was chosen by September 23.
Once the decision had been taken, Doval, Army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh and other operational planners discarded their mobile phones. All communications were direct or through highly secured lines only. Constant monitoring of the Pakistani political leadership and army brass, including the Rawalpindi-based X Corps in charge of PoK as well as the Gilgit-based commander of the Northern Areas, was carried out. As the strike plan was hammered out, Modi chaired some of the meetings.
Read | India has never attacked another country: Modi amid tension with Pakistan
The Army chief tasked his Northern Army Commander Lt Gen DS Hooda to segregate special forces troops from the 1, 4 and 9 parachute at his disposal, and prepare for action. The army build-up began on September 24. Meanwhile, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) programmed Indian satellites to monitor the target area using GPS coordinates and link-ups as a result of which Delhi had real-time imagery of the strike through helmet-mounted cameras of Indian soldiers on D-day. Video footage of the entire action exists but has not been released to the public.

With a growing backlash in India over a deadly assault on Uri army bases, the Indian Army carried out "surgical strikes" along the LoC. (AFP file photo)

Given that Pakistan had activated its radars across the LoC, insertion of special forces through helicopters was ruled out. Special forces squads with night-vision devices, Tavor 21 and AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired missiles, Heckler and Koch pistols, high explosive grenades and plastic explosives crossed the LoC on foot. The teams were 30-strong each and had specific targets.

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While the corps commanders were getting their men ready, the planners in Delhi went below the radar. Starting September 26, Doval held three meetings with the three military chiefs, foreign secretary, two intelligence chiefs, NTRO chief and the DGMO. No uniforms were allowed at these meetings; unmarked cars were used to meet at discreet locations around Delhi to discuss the plan as well as possible Pakistani retaliation.
Operational planners had narrowed things down to eight contingencies. It comes as no surprise that evacuation of civilians living close to border in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab started at 10 pm on September 27, an hour before Indian soldiers went across.
D-day began with Special Forces squads slipping across the LoC towards designated targets. The plan was such that teams with distant targets left early on September 27 evening so that all strikes would be coordinated. The instructions were that all teams would engage the terrorists simultaneously so that none could rescue another. Using mortar and machine-gun fire from the Indian side to pin Pakistani troops down, the soldiers of the special forces crawled to their targets without meeting any resistance.
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 9am on September 28. The surprise had been complete and there had hardly been any retaliatory fire.
Even as the operation was on, Doval received a call from his US counterpart Susan Rice. Although the US later said that Rice had offered India help against terrorism, the Modi government has kept this conversation top secret.
Read | ‘Incursions impossible’, insists Pakistani military after India’s surgical strikes
Throughout the operation, Modi, Parrikar, Doval, the service chiefs, DGMO, intelligence chiefs, NTRO chief, Northern Army Commander and his two corps commanders were awake and in touch. After the troopers returned, the operational planners, led by Doval, met Modi and briefed him.
Six launchpads had been razed to the ground with Indian troopers gunning down 45 terrorists at various locations. Uri had been avenged.
After the operation, Modi called a meet of the Cabinet Committee on security, and DGMO Ranbir Singh called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him about the strike. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was briefed by Modi after the CCS meet. Starting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Opposition leaders were briefed directly or at the all-party meeting held later the same day.