On Thursday, 29th September 2016, India claimed to have conducted a surgical strike in Azad Kashmir. According to Indian DG Military Operation Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, “Indian Special Forces conducted an operation 1-3 KM across LOC (Line of Control) and destroyed seven terrorist launch pads.” This statement was taken as a queue by Indian media, and the victory drums started. The hype created by Indian media persons was aimed at getting the highest ratings and government favor by convincing the simple Indians that a surgical strike actually took place. Our neighboring media persons in their anxiousness to turn an unconfirmed and unauthentic claim into a reality as soon as possible concocted their own versions of the operation. In their all so emotional reporting, they created sensation thinking, as simple folk do, that the world would believe their propaganda and more so, that Pakistan would somehow also believe it. It is quite understandable how the wishes of simple people can sometimes blind them from facts, and in this case, give them a false sense of security and superiority. It is therefore important that facts be made bare for the innocent to comprehend. Firstly it is important to understand the requirements for conducting a successful surgical strike and whether one possesses the capability to carry out such a strike, before making such a bold claim. In the words of Mr. Shawn Snow who writes for The Diplomat, “Surgical strikes can be conducted through airborne or artillery based precision guided strikes or ground force based assaults; both of which require sophisticated intelligence collection, platforms to conduct collections, and surveillance of target sites and objectives.” Bearing this in mind, analysis of Indian capability reveals that Indian forces are trained on cold war models which mean that India lacks the sophistication and training on modern models to carry out such strikes. Furthermore, a surgical strike would require the use of precision guided missile system along with the use drone technology something which our neighbor needs to develop still as their UAVs (Rustom I and Rustom II-Drones) are still in test phase. Same is the case with anti-tank guided missile, Helina, which is a helicopter launched precision strike missile being domestically developed by India is still in its testing phase. India also lacks the support of GPS guided shells whose production will start in 2018 as per their contract with BAE. To put it simply for the simple folk, India lacks the capability to carry out such strikes.
In addition to the above mentioned facts, Indian claim to carry out surgical strikes lacks sensitive details which India as failed to provide. If, however, miraculously India did manage to carry out a surgical strike, one must pose the question as to why the International community is silent on endorsing this claim or as one Indian former diplomat puts it, “Not a single American lawmaker – and there could be quite a few who are within the orbit of Indian embassy’s influence – has spoken specifically about our “surgical strikes”. They only speak about India’s commitment to counter terrorism. These are of course Congressmen who are willing to speak up for India in real time, rain or sunshine. Why are they so aloof?” This is highly relevant for the credibility of Indian claims as America has placed its military satellites above India which makes it impossible for Americans to be unaware of such a development. Americans, however, are not the only ones who are silent on this matter; in fact Russia has not endorsed this claim. Russia is a key ally of India and its troops were present in Pakistan for a military exercise at the time of the surgical strike. RT, Russia’s official media noted, “He (DGMO Ranbir Singh) did not elaborate on the nature of the operations, or whether Indian troops had entered Pakistani territory.” Moreover, to put the final nail in India’s coffin of lies, spoke person for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon clearly stated on 2nd October 2016, that the UN Military Observer in India and Pakistan “has not directly observed any firing across the LOC related to the latest incident (of September 29)”.
