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After Pathankot, Uri; 13 Burnt To Death In Another Dawn Strike
A Pathankot-type fidayeen strike at dawn on an Indian Army camp at Uri along the Line of Control left 19 soldiers dead and 32 injured and sent India-Pakistan tension soaring. All four attackers were killed and were identified by the Army as being part of the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Afzal Guru squad.The jihadi team took the Army camp, housing administrative facilities, by surprise. They burst in early on Sunday , spraying bullets and hurling hand grenades. The incendiary grenades, used for the first time in such an at tack, set fire to tents put up to house additional troops during a turnover of units. A least 13 of those killed were in two tents that caught fire.
At a briefing in Delhi, director general of military operations Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said all four attackers were foreign terrorists and had items with Pakistani markings. “Initial reports indicate that the slain terrorists belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad. Four AK-47 rifles and four underbarrel grenade launchers were recovered,“ he said. J&K Police sources said a detailed map, GPS, explosives (RDX and TNT) and a matrix sheet of codes had also been recovered. The attacks were a serious security breach as the Jaish team was able to infiltrate into Indian territory and then -as was the case in Pathankot in January -breach the perimeter of the Army camp around 5.30am. The early hour usually coincides with a change of guard. The action to eliminate the intruders ended at 8.30am but not before the attack took a heavy toll of lives. The 12th Brigade headquarters at Uri, 100km from Srinagar, is surrounded by the LoC on three sides. Targeted artillery and heavy-mortar fire on Pa kistan Army posts and bunkers and intensive sniping bunkers and intensive sniping to interfere with movement of their patrols are among the several tactical options used in the past. Yes, there will be retaliation from the other side but it can be dealt with,“ said a source. As for cross-border strikes, some security establishment officials say a political decision has to be taken to send a clear message to Pakistan that “enough is enough“. A senior official said, “How long will we keep on absorbing terror strikes, from 2611to Pathankot, without effectively retaliating? Officials say there are a variety of military options with “different thresholds“ that can be considered by the government short of a full-scale war or crossing Pakistan’s nuclear red lines. The first could be “calculated trans-border operations“ by infantry units or even the Special Forces, trained for such “irregular warfare”, against military or terrorist targets across the LoC. For longer range strikes, the 90-km range Smerch rockets or the 290-km BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles can come into play . An escalatory step would be “surgical air strikes“ by fighters like Mirage-2000s, Jaguars and Sukhoi-30MKIs armed with laser-guided `smart’ bombs or cluster bombs.But this will have to be carefully calibrated because Pakistan’s air defence system is totally geared towards India, with the possibility of IAF taking some losses. But others sound a word of caution. “Pakistan is no Myanmar (where Indian Para-SF troops conducted a trans-border raid to take out some militants in June last year). The government has to take into account that any strike inside Pakistan can escalate into an all-out war. Pakistan, of course, often threatens first-use of tactical nuclear weapons if it is attacked by India,“ said an official.    |