Eyewitnesses from across the Line of Control (LoC) have confirmed brief but intense firing during India’s surgical strikes of September 29 and how the bodies of those killed were loaded onto trucks for secret burial.
The eyewitnesses were contacted through their kin on the Indian side of the LoC and the communication took place through a “commercially available encrypted chat system”. Their accounts corroborate what India has maintained on the strikes, which Pakistan denies.
Importantly, a confidential report on Indian Army’s surgical strikes has been forwarded to the Centre. The report was made on the basis of eyewitnesses’ account.
Notably, Al-Haawi bridge is the place where Pakistan-based terrorists are provided with supplies by Lashkar-e-Toiba, before they cross the Line of Control and infiltrate into the Indian side.
Some locals also confirmed to the eyewitnesses about heavy exchange of fire on the intervening night of September 28 and 29.
The report also said five to six bodies were loaded on to a truck early next morning and possibly transported to the nearest major Lashkar camp at Chalhana.
Another eyewitness was quoted as saying that the Friday prayers at a Lashkar-affiliated mosque in Chalhana ended with a cleric vowing to avenge the deaths of men killed the previous day.
The Lashkar men also blamed the Pakistan Army for failing to defend the border.
Leepa, a complex of some 25 hamlets located at the bottom of the Qazi Nag stream flowing down from the mountains above Naugam, on the Indian side of the LoC, was among the “launch-pads” targeted in the cross-LoC raids, one eyewitness said.
Though the eyewitness was unable to visit this area, he said he spoke to villagers who had seen a Lashkar-occupied, three-storied wooden building destroyed by Indian troops near the hamlet of Khairati Bagh, the report said.
Army submit video clip to Government
The Indian Army on Wednesday submitted video clips of surgical strikes it conducted on September 28 night along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir to the government.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir confirmed the development.
“The laid down procedure has been followed. The DGMO briefed (about the surgical strikes). It was not the Defence Minister nor the Prime Minister and not the Home Minister. It was the DGMO who briefed (the media). That was the right thing to do and they (Army) did it.”
