Uri attack: Rajnath to chair high-level review meeting

[Jaswinder Singh Baidwan]

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has called for a high-level review meeting on Uri attack at 10 am today.
Defence Ministry, NSA, Director of IB, RAW Chief, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, DG BSF, DG CRPF and other senior MHA and MoD officials will attend the meeting.
MoS Defence Subhash Bhamre said, “We are holding high-level meetings and be sure befitting reply will be given.”
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to meet and brief Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the attack.
Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi will on Monday visit Srinagar to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He will meet top officials of the state government and security.
In one of the deadliest attacks on the Army in recent years, 17 soldiers were killed and 19 others injured as heavily armed militants stormed a battalion headquarters of the force in Uri early yesterday.
Four militants involved in the terror strike were killed by the Army.
The attack comes two years after militants had carried out a similar type of attack at Mohra in the same area. Ten security personnel were killed in the attack that took place on December 5, 2014.

 

[Jaswinder Singh Baidwan]

Modi: This won’t go ‘unpunished’

Talking tough after the terror attack on an Army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today promised to the nation in a tweet that those behind the “despicable and cowardly act will not go unpunished”.
The Prime Minister’s response has more to do with the tone rather than words. At least six such big and small terror attacks, including the one in Uri, have taken place against the armed forces since he assumed office in May 2014, but never on previous occasions has the tone of his response had this “sense of purpose and action”, security experts said.
After the terror attack on the Pathankot air base, the Indian establishment believ-ed in Pakistan’s intention and even allowed a Pakistani joint investigation team (JIT), which also had a member of the “notorious” ISI, to visit the terror site.
Today, strongly denouncing the act of terror, the Prime Minister saluted the soldiers who were martyred and said their service to the nation will always be remembered. “We strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack in Uri. I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished,” he tweeted on the incident in which 17 soldiers were killed and 19 injured.
Meanwhile, echoing the “tone” of the Prime Minister’s response, experts felt the time has come for military action against the perpetrators of terror. Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (retd) said, “The time has come to give a response across the LoC using the artillery as one option.”

 

[Jaswinder Singh Baidwan]

17 soldiers killed in Uri terror attack

Four Jaish-e-Mohammed militants stormed an Army base barely 50 metres from the Brigade Headquarters in Uri sector, 6 km from the Line of Control (LoC), killing 17 soldiers and wounding 23, nine of them critically, at 4.30 am today. It is the highest casualty suffered by the Army in a single attack in Kashmir in the past over two decades. The four fidayeen involved in the attack were killed.
The terror attack took place despite state Intelligence officials forewarning the Army. The well-trained, heavily-armed militants are believed to have crossed the LoC hours before the attack. They breached the 7-foot-high rear wall by cutting the barbed wire at about 4.30 am and sneaked into the Army base that houses an infantry battalion of the 12th Brigade.

As they lobbed grenades, opened fire and set ablaze the barracks and temporary shelters, there was utter chaos inside where 10 Dogra Regiment was in the process of moving out, making space for 6 Bihar Regiment. Of the 17 soldiers killed, 15 were from 6th battalion of the Bihar Regiment and two from 10 Dogra Regiment.
It is suspected that the attackers knew about the operational handover though replacement of troops along the LoC is kept a guarded secret. “Most casualties were primarily because of tents and temporary shelters catching fire. At the initial stage, soldiers of both the regiments were asleep inside. At least 10 of them were killed,” an Army official said. He said the militants, who belonged to the Jaish group, carried items with Pakistani marking.
The 12th Brigade is one of two brigades guarding the LoC in Uri sector, which is heavily forested. Sources said the militants may have infiltrated through Sokar sector and made their way through the dense cover.
The Army air-dropped special forces to zero in on the militants. After almost five hours of fierce fighting, all of them were killed.
The Army had a tough time shifting the injured to the Army Base Hospital. The state government rushed doctors from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences to the 92 Base Hospital in Badamibagh for assistance.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who reached Srinagar following the strike, said he had asked Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh to take firm action against those responsible for the attack.