NEW DELHI: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday the surgical strike against militants in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir injected “uncertainty” into the neighbour’s mind, brushing aside criticism that ceasefire violations had gone up at the border after the September 29 operation.

At least 20 soldiers and 12 civilians have died in Pakistani shelling after the surgical strike, raising questions about the efficacy of the much-publicised operation.

“The surgical strikes have introduced a degree of uncertainty… obviously, uncertainty itself creates decision-making bottlenecks. You will never know them,” the defence minister said.

The strike came 11 days after 19 Indian soldiers were killed by suspected Pakistani militants at an army base in Kashmir’s Uri.

“Earlier, one thing was sure that India won’t cross (the LoC). Now there is one thing that’s missing. In strategy and such kind of issues, you need to put uncertainty in their minds. That has been achieved,” Parrikar said. The nation was satisfied with the targeted operation. “It was continuous insult to be treated like this… Someone comes, hits us and we can’t do anything,” he said.

Asked if India could carry out more such strikes, Parrikar said the “principle of uncertainty” should be allowed to operate. “It will be beneficial to all of us.”

On Tuesday’s attack on Nagrota camp in Jammu and Kashmir that left seven soldiers dead, Parrikar said it was obvious that “some sort of lethargy” had set in and it was “painful to see soldiers die”.

He talked about the need to use smart technologies for perimeter protection but said infrastructure could not be created overnight. Lengthy procedures, he said, were coming in the way. He had asked the army to experiment with three-four types of fences but “they have massive procedures”.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation was looking for smart solutions to secure military bases. “The DRDO has been asked to try fences of different kinds — microwave, laser, smart fence that can pick vibration and CCTV cameras that can pick movement at 1km.”