Army officers were reluctant to share operational details of the September 29 cross-LoC surgical strikes with the public. “The only beneficiary of the information would be the adversary,” said an official.
Senior officers denied reports that the Army had consented to the release of footage of the strikes. Officers questioned the logic of giving out such footage, pointing to the fact that New Delhi had handed over enough evidence and dossiers to Pakistan after every major terrorist attack.
“They would reject it anyway as has been done so many times in the past,” the official said.
Larger scale “We have done such things in the past. The difference is that this time it was larger in scale. The video would show our movements and our tactics. They cannot be divulged,” one officer posted along the Line of Control told The Hindu .
Former Special Forces officers explained that each unit had its signature way of operating and procedures. Some even questioned the fact that it was 4 and 9 Para, which carried out the strikes.
“No Special Forces unit would want their Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) to come out. Nothing of that sort should come out in public,” Maj. Gen. Bhupesh Kumar Jain (retd.) told The Hindu .
He expressed deep anguish at the demands for video footage, stating: “Anonymity is the best protection for Special Forces.”
Another Special Forces veteran said those whose names come out would be at risk and in this day of publicity, those whose names were not revealed would feel left out. “This hurts the very cohesion of the forces,” he noted.
Big mistake
Former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash said the ruling BJP has made a big mistake by trying to make political capital out of the operation. “They have opened the floodgates,” he said. The Admiral pointed out that ideally the communication on the issue should have been left to the Army, and BJP leaders should not have gotten into chest thumping.
“They [the BJP] have done it before during the Myanmar operations. Once they politicised the operation, the Army’s statement has come under a cloud, and the credibility of the armed forces is being questioned,” he said.
“Now that the government has politicised the issue, they should show some more details to satisfy the critics without compromising operational specifics,” he said.
Meanwhile, PTI has reported that a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, was informed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval that about 100 terrorists were waiting on the other side of the LoC to cross over and carry out attacks.
