“If India wants to send Pakistan another strong message, hit them again with surgical strikes”, says Rtd Lt General DS Hooda

NEW DELHI: The Army General who oversaw the first such strikes on terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC), in a comment today told a source. If India wants to send Pakistan another strong message, India "can definitely" hit them again with surgical strikes, he said. Lt General (Retired) DS Hooda also said the 2016 decision to hit the terror camps came from the Centre and the military agreed with it.

"Decision (on conducting surgical strikes) finally came from political leadership but military was in agreement that we needed to do something. If we want to send another strong response to Pakistan in the future we can definitely do it again," said General Hooda.

Video footage of the surgical strikes across the LoC, which took place on September 29, 2016, was aired on TV news channels on Wednesday. The eight-minute-long video showed how the Special Forces of the Indian Army crossed over the LoC and destroyed the targets on the Pakistani side of the LoC.

The footage was reportedly shot from drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and were captured on thermal imaging cameras which was used by the Army to monitor the operation.

"The operation was monitored from a control room in Udhampur, Headquarters of Indian Army's strategic Northern Command," General Hooda, the then Northern Army Commander told a source.

"One of the major challenges that the team that went across, faced was that the camps were located close to Pakistan Army posts,feed was also going to Delhi. The whole operation lasted for six hours. The first target was hit at midnights and the last at about 6-6.15," he said.