New Delhi: Days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took a dig at Pakistan at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for supporting terror, sources have claimed that India held back surgical strikes on terror camps in the rival nation till her speech.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, a source said that the country wanted to maintain a time lag between Uri terror attacks and India's response.
"We first focused on a diplomatic offensive. Sushmaji’s speech was a key element of that. And that had constrained us for ten days," a top source was quoted as saying in the report.
The idea was to make use of UNGA as a platform to expose Pakistan's support to terrorism through Swaraj's speech. Moreover, on the very next day, India took its second step and put forward the proposal to isolate Pakistan.
India also pulled out of the SAARC Summit that is scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November.
"In all his statements, Modi had been indicating that he was with the armed forces. This was meant to boost their morale and prepare them for it," the source said.
Late on Wednesday night, India carried out surgical strikes on seven terror launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir to thwart attacks on some of its biggest cities.
The Defence establishment said there were "significant casualties" among terrorists and among those who were trying to support them.
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.
