Retired Lieutenant General DS Hooda, who was the Northern Army Commander in September 2016 when Indian troops carried out “surgical strikes” on terror launch pads across the Line of Control, on Friday said the strikes were overhyped.
On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army claimed to have carried out “surgical strikes on terror launchpads” across the Line of Control to neutralise alleged infiltrators the previous night.
The strikes followed an attack on an Army base Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri, in which 17 Indian soldiers were killed. Hooda was moderating a discussion on “Role of Cross-Border Operations and Surgical Strikes” at the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh.
Hooda said that the strikes were important and that the Army “had to do it”. He said, “Now how much should it have been politicised, whether it was right or wrong is something that should be asked to the politicians.”