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  India   Opposition query on past LoC strikes hits Foreign Secretary stonewall

Opposition query on past LoC strikes hits Foreign Secretary stonewall

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Oct 19, 2016, 6:42 am IST
Updated : Oct 19, 2016, 6:42 am IST

Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar briefed the parliamentary panel, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on the surgical strikes across the LoC on Tuesday.

Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar briefed the parliamentary panel, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on the surgical strikes across the LoC on Tuesday.

On being questioned by the Opposition MPs on whether such operations were conducted earlier too, the foreign secretary said that he would not know as the Army would only be privy to such operations. Making the surgical strikes public was a decision of the government, Mr Jaishankar added.

On the issue of a question being raised that there was no United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan activity on the LoC strikes, the foreign secretary skirted the issue, saying that since chairman Shashi Tharoor has been part of the UN, he does not want to comment.

The Army had carried out “professionally do-ne, target-specific, limited-calibre counter-terrorist operations” acr-oss the LoC in the past too, but this is for the first time that the government has made it public, the parliamentary panel was told earlier on Tuesday, in remarks that appear to contradict the defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s claims.

Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar gave this information to the standing committee on external affairs when he was specifically asked whether such strikes have been conducted in the past. Mr Jaishankar, however, skirted the issue on why the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan did not witness any activity during the surgical strikes across the LoC.

The foreign secretary’s comments assume significance in the context of claims by the defence minister last week rejecting Congress’ claims that surgical strikes were undertaken during the UPA government too.

Mr Parrikar had asserted that it was the first time that surgical strikes had taken place in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack and what was undertaken previously were operations locally executed by commanders without involving the government.

Significantly, no “evidence” was shared with the members of the parliamentary panel. Although queries were raise by certain panel members, including Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Karan Singh, the Congress vice-president attended the briefing, but did not ask any questions.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi