NEW DELHI: Though India’s main opposition Congress party has openly backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on “surgical strikes” in Azad Kashmir last week, one of its senior party leaders Tuesday cast doubts and asked for proof. Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam from Mumbai said that unless the Indian government offered proof of last week’s surgical strikes across the border in Pakistan, they appear to be fabricated.
“Every Indian wants surgical strikes against Pakistan but not fake reports to extract political benefit for BJP. I’m not saying you release all video footage as it may not be in the interest of national security, but there is a need to show some proof,” he tweeted.
Islamabad has rejected India’s claims of surgical strikes across the Line of Control to eliminate multiple terror launch pads in Pakistan last week, saying the claims were false, and what India did was just cross-border firing, a violation in its own right.
The Indian Army claimed to have carried out the strikes in Azad Kashmir in the wake of a terror attack on a military camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Uri sector earlier last month, in which 19 soldiers were killed and over 30 others injured. India and Pakistan both stake claim to Kashmir and have fought at least three major wars over the disputed region in the past 65 years.
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