Surgical Strikes secret out?
PM Modi's government after the terrorist strike on Uri army base in Jammu and Kashmir, explored all possibilities before giving green signal to Army for surgical strikes.
The moment after the revelation of successful surgical strikes, people across the world expressed doubts on the validity of the strikes.
Even opposition parties questioned the government and some even demanded proofs while others questioned army's claim. Government on its part maintained that operations and its details would be kept as secret and chose not to disclose the identity of the 19 soldiers who took part in the secret operation.
However on Jan 26, Republic Day, their identity was made known to the people on the occasion of 68th Republic Day when they were awarded gallantry medals, including a Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime gallantry award after the Ashoka Chakra.
Army sources revealed the information to the close sources and though many were involved in the planning and execution, 19 para troopers played integral role.
One Colonel, five Majors, two Captains, one Subedar, two Naib Subedars, three Havildars, one Lance Naik and four Paratroopers of the 4th and 9th battalions of the Para Regiment conducted the surgical strike.
While Major Rohit Suri from the 4th Para was awarded a Kirti Chakra, Col Harpreet Sandhu, commanding officer of 4 Para, was honoured with a Yudh Seva Medal. The team also won four Shaurya Chakras and 13 Seva Medals. Colonel Harpreet Sandhu, who was tasked to undertake two simultaneous strikes on launch pads, was awarded a Yudh Seva Medal for formulating the strike plan and ensuring its execution flawlessly.
Right after the Uri attack army planned for surgical strikes but waited for the 'amavasya' (moon-less) night. Major Rohit Suri, heading an elite 8 member strike team on Sep 28-29, carried out strikes.
Major Suri after the recce ordered his team to ngage the terrorists in the open at a launchpad. Suri and his buddy came within just 50m of the target and neutralised two terrorists. Once the terrorists in the open were killed, Major Suri noticed movement of two suspected jihadis in the nearby jungle. The movement of two terrorists was also being tracked with an UAV. Major Suri ignoring his safety intercepted the terrorists and engaged them in close fight, eliminating both of them.
Another Major was tasked to undertake close-target surveillance of the launchpads on September 27.
The officer, along with his assault group, crossed the LoC 48 hours prior to the strike and kept the target under close surveillance till the day of the strike. His team mapped the target zone, location of automatic weapons and different firing positions the strike team could use. The officer destroyed a weapon shelter, killing two terrorists.
During the attack, his squad came under fire from a nearby weapon shelter. Sensing danger to his squad, the Major, who was honoured with Shaurya Chakra, crawled near the shelter and eliminated one more terrorist, silencing the gun fire.
The third Major along with his buddy closed in on a terror shelter and destroyed it, killing all jihadis sleeping inside. Thereafter, he guided other members of the strike group to safety. Major, who too was awarded Shaurya Chakra, kept his superiors posted about the progress of the operation during the strike.
The fourth Major was awarded a Sena medal for destroying an automatic weapon fortification with his grenade attack and killing two terrorists at close range.It is coming out that the operation was not as easy as it looked like as the terrorists resorted to heavy firing.
The fifth Major spotted three terrorists carrying RPG (rocket-propelled grenades), who were about to target the squad led by the fourth Major. But before the terrorists could attack, the fifth Major, unmindful of his safety, engaged the terrorists in a gunfight and neutralised the two. His buddy eliminated the third terrorist.