New Delhi: The exercise to give a befitting reply to the Uri attack had been in the making for several days since the attack on the Uri army base, and India apparently waited till the external affairs minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj's speech at UNGA to signal its intent that attacks on its territory would be punished.
It was on late Wednesday evening when National Security Advisor Ajit Doval informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi following specific intelligence inputs that Pakistani security agencies were going to shift militants from some of the launch pads operating close to the LoC that the latter finally gave his consent for a “limited strike'' targeting these areas.
Before giving his consent, the PM discussed the issue both with Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Ever since the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by PM, first discussed the option of surgical strikes by Indian armed forces post the Uri attack on September 18 the intelligence agencies had the “advance launch pads'' at Lipa, Kel, Tatapani (Hotspring) and Bhimber on its radar as they operated within a radius of 500 meter to 3 km from the LoC and were thus within striking range of security forces to carry out a swift operation.
