A senior Pakistan police officer has admitted that India indeed carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and killed at least five soldiers and several militants in an operation that Islamabad denies happened.
Ghulam Akbar, the Superintendent of Police (Special Branch) of the Mirpur Range in Paksitani Kashmir, told CNN News18 TV channel that the strikes took place at many sectors on the early hours of September 29.
The news channel said on Wednesday that one of its journalists, Manoj Gupta, posed as Inspector General of Police Mushtaq while speaking to Akbar over telephone.
The channel aired excerpts of the conversation, quoting Akbar as saying that he personally knew about the strikes.
The Indian operation, he said, occurred at Samana in Bhimber, Hazira in Poonch, Dudhniyal in Neelam and Kayani in Hathian Bala, the border sectors on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC).
Akbar said the Pakistan Army cordoned off all these areas immediately after the Indian incursion.
"Sir, that was night... you can say roughly 3-4 hours... between 2 a.m. and 4 or 5 a.m... The attack continued between that time.
"There were attacks on separate places... Several places were attacked... They also met (with) resistance," Akbar said.
The news channel said Akbar stated that the Pakistan Army was caught unawares by the Indian attack and lost five soldiers. The channel said it had the names of the slain Pakistani soldiers but didn't reveal them.
The Mirpur police officer also claimed that the bodies of an unknown number of terrorists were quickly removed by the Pakistani military and taken away in ambulances.
He said the bodies many have been buried in villages.
Akbar also revealed that the Pakistani Army facilitates the movement of terrorists in forward areas and arranges for their crossing over to India, the channel said.
"The army brings them, sir... it is in their hands," Akbar said.
He said he doesn't know about the accurate number of terrorists killed because the Pakistan Army protects the jihadi infrastructure from even the local authorities and police.
The admission by the senior police officer came even as Pakistan has repeatedly trashed Indian claims that its commandos crossed the LoC and destroyed seven terror launch pads and killed an unknown number of militants.
Pakistan even took a group of local and foreign journalists to some areas near the LoC to claim that the surgical strikes never happened.
The Indian Army carried out the operation to avenge the September 18 killing of 19 Indian soldiers in a terror attack on a military base in Jammu and Kashmir.
India said the suicide attackers were from the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and infiltrated from Pakistan.
--IANS
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