A former army General who planned the 2016 surgical strikes on militant camps in PaK, Friday said special forces were training for the strike almost a year before the Uri militant attack.
Lt General (retd) D S Hooda, a former Northern Armycommander, who now heads the Congress’ task force on national security, wasspeaking at an event here.
Hooda headed the Army’s Northern Command when special forcescommandos carried out a cross-border operation in September 2016 after the Uriattack, in which 19 soldiers were killed.
Recalling the Uri attack, Hooda said, “That evening, Iwas there with the Chief of Army Staff and we were walking through four inchesthick ash from burnt tents.”
“And we were saying that we have to do something, wecannot just let this pass. When we were talking of options, what helped us wasthat, for the past one year, we had been training for such a contingency. Wedid not know whether it would come,” he said.
“For the past one year (before Uri attack), specialforces were preparing…That if we had to do a cross-border raid in Pakistan,how exactly we would do it,” Hooda said.
“When you see soldiers who go across the border andcarry out raids on terrorist camps and come back, it is because all throughtheir lives, they have worked and worked and worked,” he said.
“In the Army, we have a saying. The more you sweat inpeace, the less you will bleed in war,” he said.
“It (surgical strike) cannot be a small operation andit had to be done on a scale so that it gives out a very strong message toPakistan,” he said.
“Therefore, we decided on five terror camp targets which were across the border. It was a hugely complex operation. It is one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world. So we had to go across, get into the depth where their terror camps are, hit them and return,” he said.