Former union minister says 10-15 Pakistanis were killed in the raid on post Musharraf had visited 10 days earlier
ThePrint Reporter
Former union minister Arun Shourie has disclosed that the Indian Army carried out a major raid across the Line of Control (LoC) when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA-1 was in power, venturing much deeper than the claims made during last September’s surgical strikes and killing 10-15 Pakistani personnel.
Speaking at ThePrint’s ‘Off the Cuff’ (OTC) event in Chennai earlier this month, Shourie shared details of a cross-border strike carried out during the Vajpayee government, revealing that the post attacked had been visited by Gen. Pervez Musharraf just 10 days before the attack.
“I will tell you something from absolutely personal knowledge. This time it is said we went in two kilometres. In that particular incident – it happened during Atal-ji’s time – they had done something evil on the Indian side. To teach them a lesson a raid was planned which was about 14 km inside Pakistan,” Shourie said in a conversation with ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta.
The event was telecast this weekend.
The former union minister said that Indian troops even brought back bodies and documents from the raid. “They killed everybody there, probably about 10-15 people and they lugged seven bodies back across the border into India,” Shourie said. The documents brought back revealed that Gen. Musharraf had visited the Pakistani post just a few days before the raid to interact with troops.
“As a trophy, they also brought the guest book of that particular post. It is lying in one of the regimental headquarters today. And it so happened that 10 days before, Musharraf had come to the post and said what a good job you are doing, keep it up,” Shourie said.
The former minister was making a point against what he called “rising rhetoric”, saying that the operation conducted during NDA-1 was never spoken about.
Arun Shourie’s time is over and I guess he still likes the limelight! But it is a sad state of India’s opposition that a bunch of discarded retirees have more punch than the entire political opposition.
Arun Shourie is a classic example of an individual who puts self-interests ahead of the nation. He is upset with Modi for not including him in the cabinet and hence desperately trying to embarrass NaMo. Arun Shourie is a spent force as far as constructive work goes and by that analogy now good for leftists in India, who would want to latch on to anything and everything to show Modi in a bad light.
Vajpayee was a national security disaster. From Kargil to IA Hi Jack to Parliament. A Crypto Khangressi. Shayries, Iftaar, Skull cap and all
Arun Shourie’s known unease with Modi government is no secret. A person of his calibre to make this raid public now is nothing but an attempt to rake up the surgical strike. Shud have avoided