Surgical strikes: Panic grips Srinagar as locals mistake meteorite for missile attack

Srinagar: Hours after India launched surgical strikes on seven terror launchpads across the LoC in Pakistan, panic gripped Srinagar as people mistook a meteorite for a missile attack launched by the rival nation.

According to a report in The Indian Express, locals thought that the meteorite was a retaliation by Pakistan in the wake of cross-border tensions between the two countries.

Late on Wednesday night, Indian Army, in the first such action, carried out surgical strikes on terror launchpads with the Army saying its special forces inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Sources said the launchpads in PoK were in the range of 2 to 3 kilometres from the LoC and were under surveillance for over a week while Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the strikes targeted 5 to 6 places across the LoC along Kupwara and Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir. Naidu said there was no casualty on the Indian side.

These surgical strikes are the first major military action taken by India against Pakistan after the Uri attack in which 18 soldiers were killed as terrorists from Pakistan crossed into an Army camp earlier this month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged that the attack would not go unpunished.

A surgical strike is a swift attack undertaken by military on specific targets with the aim to neutralise them while ensuring minimum collateral damage to the surrounding areas and civilians, and a subsequent return to primary positions. It also prevents escalation to a full-blown war.

These attacks can be carried out via air raids, airdropping special operation teams or a ground operation. All three Indian armed forces have their separate special ops teams. It requires detailed and extensive planning to carry out surgical strikes and achieve the objective. External intelligence is vital to carry out these strikes.