New Delhi: Amid the ongoing chaos over opposition leaders demanding proof of surgical strikes conducted by the security forces across the Line of Control, a report in The Indian Express on Wednesday said that the bodies of those killed in strikes were loaded onto trucks for ‘secret burials’.
“Intense fire engagements destroyed makeshift buildings that housed jihadists,” the report quoted eyewitnesses living across the LoC.
The eyewitnesses’ accounts corroborate India’s claims that it carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads on September 29.
They also provided details of targeted locations which have not been made public by the government of India and Pakistan.
“Five to six bodies were loaded onto a truck early next morning, and possibly transported to the nearest major Lashkar camp at Chalhana,” an eyewitness said he was told by local residents.
Another eyewitness said that Friday prayers at a Lashkar-affiliated mosque in Chalhana ended with a cleric vowing to avenge the deaths of the men killed the previous day. “The Lashkar men gathered there were blaming the Pak Army for failing to defend the border and saying they would soon give India an answer it would never forget,” said the eyewitness.
However, Pakistan has denied India’s surgical strikes claim, saying its military’s forward positions were targeted with small-arms and mortar fire.
"There has been no surgical strike by India, instead there had been cross border fire initiated and conducted by India which is existential phenomenon. As per rules of engagement, the same was strongly and befittingly responded by Pakistani troops," Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said in its press release after India announced conducting the strikes.
After praising the Army for surgical strikes across the Line of Control and backing the government over the dismantling of launchpads, some in the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal have now tacitly started asking questions.
The first salvo was fired by Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, who said “every Indian wants surgical strikes against Pakistan, but not a fake one just to extract political benefit”.
The AAP had on Monday adopted a similar line. While “saluting” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the attack, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had asked the government to produce evidence to “stop the propaganda being carried out by Pakistan that there had been no surgical strike”.
