‘Conducted 3 counter strikes in 5 years’: Rajnath Singh makes big claim, refuses to reveal about third

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday made a startling revelation, saying that in the past five years, Indian forces carried out three counter strikes across the border. He, however, added that he will talk about two of the instances, not the third.

“In the last five years, three time we have crossed the border and conducted successful strikes. I will provide information on two, but not the third. Once in Uri, our soldiers were killed by terrorists coming from Pakistan, then our soldiers had responded. Next was after Pulwama. The third one I will not disclose,” Singh said at a rally in Mangaluru.

As Rajnath Singh said he won't mention the third incident of "air strike", the crowd broke into a round of applause, lauding the minister's claims.

"One time you saw in Uri, terrorists who came from Pakistan killed 17 of our soldiers, who were sleeping at night in a cowardly attack.

#WATCH Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a public rally in Mangaluru: Pichle 5 varsho mein, teen baar apni seema ke bahar jaa kar hum logon ne air strike kar kaamyaabi haasil ki hai. Do ki jaankari apko dunga, teesri ki nahi dunga. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/NZKeJPulrS

— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2019

After that, our soldiers also decided. Whatever happened after that you too know it very well, I need not tell....Now you are seeing.

First attack happened. Second one was air strike... happened after Pulwama attack.

I won't give you information about the third one," Singh said without elaborating.

Singh asserted that "it is no more a weak India."

"...Leaving aside all our differences, we have to stand together. Time and again India has done this."

RELATED

Just 12 days after the dastardly terror attack in Pulwama which claimed lives of 40 CRPF jawans, the Indian Air Force carried out “non-military, pre-emptive” action, destroying Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26.

The next day, Pakistan Air Force violated the Indian airspace and downed a MiG-21 and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on March 1.  

Earlier, on September 29, 2016, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) as a response to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month in which 18 personnel were killed.

Apart from the Balakot airstrike and the 2016 surgical strike, Indian soldiers had crossed the border with Myanmar in 2015. The strike was carried out by a crack team of about 70 commandos of the Indian Army who finished the operation within 40 minutes, leaving 38 Naga insurgents dead and seven injured. 

The big claim by Singh comes at a time when the government is already being cornered by the opposition, which has been questioning the success rate of the IAF action in Pakistan. Several leaders have apparently asked the government to come up with proof of the goverment's claim that over 300 terrorists were neutralised in the action.