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Tag: surgical

  • ‘Release surgical strike video…’ Congress’ Rashid Alvi backs Digvijaya Singh

    ‘Release surgical strike video…’ Congress’ Rashid Alvi backs Digvijaya Singh

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    New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy over Congress leader Digvijaya Singh questioning the authenticity of the ‘2019 Surgical Strike’, Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Friday came in support of his party colleague and asked the Centre to release the surgical strike video that it claimed it has.

    “Government says it has a video (of a surgical strike) so what is wrong with Digvijaya Singh asking the government to show it? We’re not asking for proof (of strike) but the government should show the video it claims it has,” said Rashid Alvi while speaking to ANI.

    Alvi’s reaction comes days after Digvijaya Singh’s remark on the surgical strike.

    Digvijaya Singh had said the government talks of surgical strikes. “They (government) claim to have killed so many people but no proof is given,” Singh had said.

    Congress leader Rashid Alvi said that the country has confidence in the security forces but can’t trust the BJP government. “We have faith in our security forces but can’t trust the BJP government,” he added.

    Rashid Alvi further raised questions about various ministers’ statements surrounding the surgical strike.

    “Sushma Swaraj, who was a minister in the government, had said that the air strike was done at a place where there was no possibility of anyone getting killed. Amit Shah claims that more than 300 terrorists were killed in the air strike.

    Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claims that more than 400 terrorists were killed in the air strike,” Alvi pointed out.

    Citing the above statements, Congress leader Alvi said that it varies and therefore if the government claims to have video proof it should be shown.

    “These contradictory statements raise questions as to what exactly happened in the surgical air strike. That’s why the government if it claims that it has the video evidence of the air strike should make it public,” Rashid Alvi demanded.

    Congress leader Alvi further sought an apology from the Centre in case it does not have video proof.

    “If they do not have any video evidence to prove its claims, then the government should apologize,” he added.

    In strong disapproval of Digvijaya Singh’s remarks on surgical strikes, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party leader had stated a “ridiculous thing” and that he disagrees with the views.

    “I do not agree with what Digvijaya Singh said. We have full trust in our Army. If Army takes action, there is no need for proof. I disagree with his (Digvijay)’s statement and Congress’ official position is also that this is his opinion,” Rahul Gandhi said.

    The party had officially also distanced itself from Digvijaya Singh’s remarks on Monday.



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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Balakot Surgical Strike: Did Trump Administration Prevent India-Pak Nuclear War?

    Balakot Surgical Strike: Did Trump Administration Prevent India-Pak Nuclear War?

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    SRINAGAR: Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has claimed that India and Pakistan were on the verge of a nuclear war in February 2019, when India resorted to surgical strikes deep inside Balakot. In his latest book he has claimed that his then-Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj woke him up for a phone conversation to tell him that Pakistan was preparing for a nuclear attack and that India too was preparing to retaliate, The Tribune reported.

    jaishankar pompeo meet pti
    A 2019 photograph showing Dr Jaishankar with his US counterpart, Mike Pompeo

    Writing in Never Give an Inch: Fighting for America, Pompeo claims the phone call came when he was in Hanoi for the US-North Korea summit on February 27-28 and his team then had to work through the night with both New Delhi and Islamabad to avert the crisis.

    “I will never forget the night I was in Hanoi, Vietnam, when — as if negotiating with the North Koreans on nuclear weapons wasn’t enough —India and Pakistan started threatening each other in connection with a decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir,” wrote Pompeo in the book. “I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019. The truth is, I don’t know precisely the answer either; I just know it was too close.”

    The book reads: “After an Islamist terrorist attack in Kashmir — probably enabled in part by Pakistan’s lax counter-terror policies — killed 40 Indians, India responded with an air strike against terrorists inside Pakistan. The Pakistanis shot down a plane in a subsequent dogfight and kept the Indian pilot prisoner.”

    “In Hanoi, I was awakened to speak with my Indian counterpart. He believed the Pakistanis had begun to prepare their nuclear weapons for a strike. India, he informed me, was contemplating its own escalation. I asked him to do nothing and give us a minute to sort things out (sic),’’ wrote Pompeo, mistakenly referring to Swaraj as “he”. The MEA has so far not responded to Pompeo’s recollection.

    Sushma Swaraj
    India’s foreign minister speaking to the UN general assembly on September 29, 2018

    He went on to say that while the incumbent External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was “competent”, his earlier counterpart Sushma Swaraj was not “important” in the matters of external affairs and he used to directly deal with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

    Reacting to this, Jaishankar said, “I have seen a passage in Secretary Pompeo’s book referring to Smt Sushma Swaraj ji. I always held her in great esteem and had an exceptionally close and warm relationship with her. I deplore the disrespectful colloquialism used for her.”

    Pompeo in his book also claims that “India, which has charted an independent course on foreign policy, was forced to change its strategic posture and join the four-nation Quad grouping due to China’s aggressive actions.” India and China are locked in a lingering border standoff in eastern Ladakh for over 31 months.

    The bilateral relationship came under severe strain following the deadly clash in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in June 2020.

    India has maintained that the bilateral relationship cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border area.

    Pompeo called India the “wild card” in Quad. “The country (India) has always charted its own course without a true alliance system, and that is still mostly the case. But China’s actions have caused India to change its strategic posture in the last few years.”

    Pompeo also explains how the Donald Trump administration succeeded in bringing India on board the Quad grouping.

    The US, Japan, India and Australia had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad or the Quadrilateral coalition.

    “In June 2020, Chinese soldiers clubbed twenty Indian soldiers to death in a border skirmish. That bloody incident caused the Indian public to demand a change in their country’s relationship with China,” Pompeo writes.

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    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Pompeo claims India informed him Pakistan was preparing for nuclear attack post-Balakot surgical strike

    Pompeo claims India informed him Pakistan was preparing for nuclear attack post-Balakot surgical strike

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    Washington: Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that he was awakened to speak to his then Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj who told him that Pakistan was preparing for a nuclear attack in the wake of the Balakot surgical strike in February 2019 and India is preparing its own escalatory response.

    In his latest book ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love’ that hit the stores on Tuesday, Pompeo says that the incident took place when he was in Hanoi for the US-North Korea Summit on February 27-28 and his team worked overnight with both New Delhi and Islamabad to avert this crisis.

    “I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019. The truth is, I don’t know precisely the answer either; I just know it was too close,” Pompeo writes.

    India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans.

    “I’ll never forget the night I was in Hanoi, Vietnam when – as if negotiating with the North Koreans on nuclear weapons wasn’t enough – India and Pakistan started threatening each other in connection with a decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir,” Pompeo says.

    “After an Islamist terrorist attack in Kashmir- probably enabled in part by Pakistan’s lax counterterror policies – killed forty Indians, India responded with an air strike against terrorists inside Pakistan. The Pakistanis shot down a plane in a subsequent dogfight and kept the Indian pilot prisoner,” he said.

    “In Hanoi, I was awakened to speak with my Indian counterpart. He believed the Pakistanis had begun to prepare their nuclear weapons for a strike. India, he informed me, was contemplating its own escalation. I asked him to do nothing and give us a minute to sort things out (sic),” Pompeo writes in his book, which wrongly refers to Swaraj as “he”.

    “I began to work with Ambassador (then National Security Advisor John) Bolton, who was with me in the tiny secure communications facility in our hotel. I reached the actual leader of Pakistan, (Army chief) General (Qamar Javed) Bajwa, with whom I had engaged many times. I told him what the Indians had told me. He said it wasn’t true,” Pompeo says.

    “As one might expect, he believed the Indians were preparing their nuclear weapons for deployment. It took us a few hours – and remarkably good work by our teams on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad – to convince each side that the other was not preparing for nuclear war,” the 59-year-old top former American diplomat wrote in his book.

    There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of External Affairs on Pompeo’s claims.

    “No other nation could have done what we did that night to avoid a horrible outcome. As with all diplomacy, the people working the problem set matter a great deal, at least in the short run. I was fortunate to have great team members in place in India, none more so than Ken Juster, an incredibly capable ambassador. Ken loves India and its people,” he said.

    “And, most of all, he loves the American people and worked his tail off for us every day. My most senior diplomat, David Hale, had also been the US ambassador to Pakistan and knew that our relationship with India was a priority,” Pompeo said.

    “General McMaster and Admiral Philip Davidson, the head of what came to be renamed the US Indo-Pacific Command, understood India’s importance, too,” he said.

    “Although often frustrated by the Indians, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer – a brilliant trade negotiator and a Bob Dole staff alumnus, making him a near-Kansan – was a great partner working to deepen economic ties. We all shared the view that America had to make a bold strategic effort to tighten our ties with India and break the mold with new ideas,” Pompeo writes in his book.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Disagree with Digvijaya Singh’s remark on surgical strikes: Rahul

    Disagree with Digvijaya Singh’s remark on surgical strikes: Rahul

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    Rahul lauds Wayanad on becoming first Indian district to digitise tribals' documents

    Jammu: Former Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday categorically rejected party veteran Digvijaya Singh’s remark on the 2019 surgical strikes.

    While addressing a press conference here, the Gandhi scion — spearheading the Bharat Jodo yatra — said that the party completely trusts the Army and there is no need of any proof on it.

    “Do not agree with Digvijaya Singh’s statement, we have full trust in our Army if it does something there is no need to give proof. I personally disagree with him and this is also official position of the party”, he said.

    Congress, on Monday, had distanced itself from Singh’s comments on Pulwama, including on the surgical strikes, terming his statement “personal”.

    “The views expressed by senior leader Digvijaya Singh are his own and do not reflect the position of Congress. Surgical strikes were carried out before 2014 by UPA government. Congress has supported & will continue to support all military actions that are in the national interest,” Congres General Secretary, in charge of communication, Jairam Ramesh said.

    Digvijaya Singh, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, targeted the Union government, alleging that it gave no proof of surgical strikes though it claimed to have killed many terrorists.

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    #Disagree #Digvijaya #Singhs #remark #surgical #strikes #Rahul

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Digvijaya Singh questions surgical strikes, accuses govt of peddling lies

    Digvijaya Singh questions surgical strikes, accuses govt of peddling lies

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    Jammu: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday questioned the surgical strikes and accused the government of peddling lies, drawing furious reaction from the BJP which said the opposition party was blinded by its “hate” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has “insulted” the armed forces.

    As his comments stoke a major political row, the Congress distanced itself from them, saying they are “his own” and do not reflect the party’s position.

    Addressing a public meeting during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh alleged that the government did not agree to the CRPF request of flying its personnel from Srinagar to Delhi and 40 soldiers sacrificed their lives in Pulwama in 2019 to a terror attack.

    “They talk of surgical strikes. They claim to have killed so many people but no proof is given. They are ruling by peddling a bundle of lies,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, who has often courted controversy with his comments, said.

    The BJP launched a sharp attack on the Congress, saying that such comments show that the Rahul Gandhi-led foot march across the country is Bharat Jodo Yatra only in name while he and his party colleagues are working to “break” the country. It is essentially “Bharat todo yatra”, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said.

    He said, “India will not tolerate if they speak against armed forces. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress hate PM Modi but it seems they have been blinded by the hate to an extent that their dedication to the country has withered away.”

    He said Congress leaders had raised questions about the surgical strikes soon after the Indian Air Force said it hit terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack.

    “Gandhi and the Congress do not have trust in our brave armed forces. They repeatedly raise questions and insult the citizens of India and our armed forces,” Bhatia claimed.

    With the BJP seizing the issue to corner the Congress over its key plank of national security, the opposition party swung into damage-control.

    AICC general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, “The views expressed by senior leader Digvijaya Singh are his own and do not reflect the position of Congress. Surgical strikes were carried out before 2014 by UPA government. Congress has supported and will continue to support all military actions that are in the national interest.”

    An unfazed Singh, however, kept up his line of attack.

    In a tweet in Hindi, he said, “From where did the terrorists get 300 kg of RDX in Pulwama incident? DSP Davinder Singh was caught with terrorists but then why was he released? We also want to know about the friendship between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India.”

    In his video message attached to the tweet, Singh said 40 CRPF personnel sacrificed their lives in Pulwama, but this government has not been able to reveal from where three quintals of RDX came.

    “Besides, the government has not been able to answer where is DSP Davinder Singh, who was caught involved with terrorists. Why was he let free and why was a case of treason not registered against him?

    “We would also like to know from the prime minister as to what kind of relations he has with Pakistani prime minister that both are praising each other. At least, he should answer these questions,” the Congress leader said in a video message.

    Attacking the Congress, Bhatia said its leaders had tried to deflect attention from Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack as well. Randeep Singh Surjewala had then blamed “home-grown terrorism”, he claimed, alleging that the opposition party tried to give a clean chit to Pakistan.

    Pakistan is in a lot of pain when our armed forces strike terrorists, while in India it is the Congress which is in anguish, he said.

    With the Pulwama terror attack and surgical strikes taking place in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the issues had captured popular imagination as the BJP retained power at the Centre with a bigger mandate than 2014 by winning over 300 seats out of 543.

    “Nothing is bigger than people’s blessings in democracy. In the 2019 polls, it became clear that people stand with the BJP and the armed forces. While those who raised questions are facing existential crisis,” Bhatia said.

    Bhatia claimed that the then Congress-led UPA government in 2008 did not allow the armed forces to target Pakistan after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. “There was zero response as it lacked courage. That corrupt and incompetent Congress government had no will,” he said.

    On the other hand the Modi government targeted camps of terrorists in Pakistan after terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama, he said.

    The BJP spokesperson also asked Rahul Gandhi to iterate his stand on Article 370, which gave special rights to Jammu and Kashmir and was repealed by the government in 2019.

    Supporting his party colleague Digvijaya Singh, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera shared his tweet and video message and said Prime Minister Modi should answer questions on Pulwama and not hide behind the armed forces.

    “The question is from the Modi government. Without hiding behind our brave army, Modi ji should answer: How did RDX reach Pulwama? Why was DSP Davinder Singh released without investigation? What kind of relation does Modi ji have with Pakistan that you call ISI to Pathankot,” Khera said.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )