Army says surgical strike claims baseless; Congress calls it ‘propaganda on instructions’
A video grab of counter-insurgency operation doing rounds on internet.
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, August 22: The Indian Army on Tuesday trashed the claims splashed on front page by Hindi daily Dainik Jagran of India carrying out surgical strikes inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, asking the newspaper to exercise editorial oversight, including verification of facts in reporting on “such sensitive matters”.
The report had just one sentence that the “Army has not yet confirmed the surgical strikes carried out in PoK”. The surgical strike report, otherwise ran for eight columns at the top of the front page without any attribution anywhere. It also gave background of the Balakot surgical strike.
While the Army in its denial stated that “aspects covered in the news are incorrect and baseless”. “Indian Army strongly refutes the above story published in your newspaper and also posted on digital platforms because the aspects covered in the news are incorrect and baseless. The article has been published without corroborating details from official sources. It is clarified that an infiltration bid was foiled in the General Area of Hamirpur on 21st August 2023, where two terrorists were likely injured/ killed and war like stores including AK-47, magazines, ammunition, hand grenades and Pak-origin medicines were recovered. The details about the same were shared with all media houses by PRO Jammu,” the Army said in its rejoinder to Dainik Jagran.
But Congress leader Supriya Srinate in a video message argued that such a report could not have been splashed prominently “if the daily had not been working under instructions to peddle propaganda for clear motives”. She said that a report of such nature should have been vetted internally by the newspaper for authentications, and official reactions must have been sought to confirm the outlandish claims made by the reporter in the news copy. Srinate also accused that the Hindi daily is widely known to work under instructions in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, The Hindu in its report on April 26 this year had quoted Abdul Basit, former Pakistani diplomat, claiming that India would once more carry out the surgical strike against his country in the wake of the Poonch terror attack in which five army personnel had lost their lives. The daily had quoted Basit claiming that “fear is looming in Pakistan of counter-strike by India” even while the former diplomat removed the grounds for his arguments by stating that New Delhi may not resort to such actions because of the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and G20.
About The Author
