Indian soldiers, who had gone on a mission to track militants responsible for the killing of 18 Dogra Regiment soldiers near the Manipur border last month, came back unhurt - except from leech attacks in the jungle, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.
"Some days back there was an operation on the border. 18 soldiers of the 6 Dogra Regiment were attacked by terrorists and were martyred. In the revenge (mission), not a single soldier was injured. But two to three came to me with complaints that they were attacked by leeches while travelling through the jungles," he said at a all-Goa BJP workers meeting here,
On the operation, Parrikar said: "As defence minister you have to shut the mouth. But because the mouth is closed, does not mean you have cannot punch. We have exacted appropriate revenge."
The former Goa chief minister also used the leech attack incident to attack the Congress, alleging their effect on Goa and its development had also been "leech-like".
"Goa was also plagued by the leech-like Congress," he said.
The secret mission which resulted in the killing of several members of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, which was responsible for carrying out the attack on the Dogra Regiment soldiers, had created controversy, after Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the surgical strike was carried out in Myanmar.
The Myanmar government subsequently denied the claim.