NEWDELHI: A day after TV channels broadcasted video clips of the 2016 surgical strikes against terror pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and brought the operation back in focus, former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd), who oversaw the mission, told Rahul Singh the footage was authentic but edited and releasing it was a good move. Edited excerpts:
I can confirm that it is authentic and I have seen it.
What are your views on the video being released?
I think it’s good that the video is out. After Pakistan stoutly denied that no surgical strikes were conducted in PoK and there were doubts raised about the operation in some quarters in the country too, I strongly felt that the video should be released. It lays the matter to rest. The video has been released after some time, but it’s better late than never.
There have been questions that the video may have compromised how the army conducts
such operations by revealing its tactics.
There’s no such thing like that. I can confirm that the video has been properly edited so that sensitive information was deleted.
What did the strikes achieve?
When we launched the strikes, we did not even remotely think that it will end Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. But we wanted to send a strong message across the border and also avenge the killing of our soldiers in the Uri attack.
What message did the Army seek to send?
The idea was to send out multiple messages. We proved that we were capable of crossing the heavily -guarded line of control and strike at multiple places.
Questions were being raised about what the army was going to doing after the Uri attack. So it was a message to our own countrymen too to have faith in the army. And we are capable of doing it again. We only need the orders to go ahead.
What about the criticism that the government is exploiting the army’s valour for political gains?
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