#SurgicalStrikes: 6 Questions
SEEMA MUSTAFA
#SurgicalStrikes: 6 Questions
SEEMA MUSTAFA
Friday, September 30,2016
NEW DELHI: 24 hours after the Indian Army carried out the surgical strikes taking out seven terror launch pads in Pakistan, both New Delhi and Islamabad seem to be engaged in a new war of words centering around “I am right, believe me” rhetoric for their domestic constituencies.
The world community is following the fracas, rather silently, with just a caution that both the countries must not escalate tensions. The global media has reported the strikes with a big dose of scepticism, giving the ‘Indian version’ versus the ‘Pakistan version’ that claims that the Indian Army did not cross the Line of Control, that two Pakistani soldiers were killed in cross border fire, that one Indian soldier had been captured and several others killed or injured.
That an Indian soldier has been captured by the Pakistani Army has now been confirmed by New Delhi as well, although predictably the versions of how this happened differ. But the soldier is in Pakistan captivity.
It is clear that New Delhi will be called upon to give more details soon. And perhaps release the photographic evidence the Army said it has about the strikes. Questions are already being raised about the paucity of details in the international media and Pakistan is likely to step up the demand for ‘proof’. Of course, it goes without saying that both India and Pakistan will contest the details of the strikes for their own domestic reasons, with the government in New Delhi looking for well earned applause before the crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab; and Pakistan waiting for home domestic response to crystallise before taking the next step.
The uncertainty of the current situation lies in this ‘next step’ with top level meetings being held in Islamabad to determine whether to escalate the situation or let it go. Given the fact that the Pakistan Army, like the right wing here, believes in a well oiled moustache too it is unlikely that Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif will let this incident past without reprisal, more so as he is due to retire in six weeks and will prefer a swan song to a limp last record. Peace is not the constituency of either.
Details about the strikes are still missing, and New Delhi will need to answer the questions that are already finding their way into the public domain, reglardless of the jingoistic hysteria created by sections of the media and the political establishment.
1. What was the rough composition of the strike teams and what sectors of Pakistan territory did they hit? There is confusion about the first, and no details about the second part of this question till now.
2. Were the ground troops who carried out the operation supported by helicopters. There has been a categorical ‘yes’ followed by an equally firm ‘no’ in separate background briefings on the strikes.
3. Many reports seem to be suggesting that such strikes are carried out regularly by the military on both sides, and are kept as part of the not publicised ‘covert’ operations. And these were part of the same except for the fact that a political decision was made to bring the army action into the ‘overt operations’ space. What are the elements that make these surgical strikes different from past military action?
4. Each strike team, defence experts estimate, could comprise 7 to 15 soldiers. That means that a minimum of at least 50-60 would have entered Pakistan territory for the seven targets. Pakistan has been on high alert since the Uri terror attack. Commercial flights over the sensitive region had been stopped. Where then was the Pakistan Army in what is the most heavily guarded terrain, or rather Line of Control, in the world?
5. Terror launch pads are not constructed structures. These are last point positions really from where a group of militants are sent into India at regular periods in time. The militants are not housed here, just assembled to be pushed across. In the 1990s and earlier, as many as 20-25 militants would be brought by the Pakistan Army to a predetermined location, described as a launch pad, from where they would be taken across the LoC by ‘guides’. Lately the numbers have dwindled, and informed sources said that 4-5 persons now assemble at locations just before they are taken across by the guides. These locations change all the time, and hence there is no real location map for launch pads, a different location being determined by the Pakistan Army from time to time. It would thus be a valuable fill-in-the-blank if some details about the launch pads are provided by the Indian Army. How were these located?
6. The Army has spoken of inflicting massive casualties. And while officially no figures have been given, sources have let it be known that the numbers could be in the range of 38 or so. According to retired Generals familiar with operations, the strikes are to take out the target and not count the bodies. And that such strikes take minutes, not hours. How many Pakistanis were killed in the operation?
http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/1/8850/SurgicalStrikes-6-Questions
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