New Delhi: A day after a video of surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army across LoC on the intervening night of September 28 and 29 of 2016 was released, Asaduddin Owaisi said on Thursday that the objective of the offensive has not yet been fulfilled.
In the immediate aftermath of confirming the surgical strikes, the Centre had said that it was a crackdown on terror havens across LoC and a befitting reply to the Uri attack. Owaisi, however, countered it and said that terrorists were still killing Indian soldiers. "The soldiers that were killed in 2016, there are more dying now. Then how did the surgical strikes achieve the objective of delivering a massive blow to terrorists?" he asked.
Unlike several other rival party leaders, Owaisi did not doubt if the strikes indeed took place but instead questioned what the strikes had achieved. "As far as me and my party go, the surgical strikes happened. But has anything changed on the ground after these strikes? Why is our army still being attacked from across the border? Why are people in the border areas still being targetted?" he asked.
An enormous political debate has once again begun following the latest video of the strikes. While Owaisi points out that the objective of neutralising Pak-based terror has not been acheieved, parties like Congress have accused BJP of trying to gain political mileage at the cost of Indian soldiers. "The ruling party will have to remember that they cannot make the sacrifice of the Army a tool to garner votes for them. It is the soldiers who sacrificed their lives and it is Modi ji who was glorified," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
