Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has targeted the Centre by questioning the ‘efficacy’ of the 2016 surgical strike and said the perception that it would demoralise Pakistani terrorists remained an ‘illusion’ as Indian soldiers continue to get killed in terror attacks in Kashmir.
Accusing the Modi government of boasting about how Pakistan was straightened out after the surgical strike, the Shiv Sena sought to know whether it has really happened. It also observed that troubled borders were not good for the country’s well-being.
Sena’s remarks come in the wake of the death of an Army soldier from Maharashtra, Naik Sandip Raghunath Sawant, who was killed Wednesday during a counter-insurgency operation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The New Year did not begin on a positive note in Kashmir. Our jawan from Satara, Sandip Sawant, attained martyrdom in Kashmir along with two other soldiers. In the last one month, seven to eight jawans from Maharashtra were killed in the line of duty. The Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra is not responsible for this,” the Sena said in an editorial Friday in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
The party also questioned whether the situation in Kashmir has improved after the surgical strike and abrogation of Article 370 provisions.
India had conducted the surgical strike on September 29, 2016, across the Line of Control (LoC) as a response to a terrorist attack on an Indian Army base in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir earlier that month.
Without naming the Centre, the Sena alleged, “Circulating news that only the Pakistanis were getting killed in Kashmir will not change the reality as Tricolour-draped bodies of Indian soldiers, like Sawant, are reaching their respective villages.”
It added: “There is bloodshed along the Kashmir border and mounting anger among the families of martyred jawans. The perception that surgical strikes will demoralise Pakistani terrorists has turned out to be an illusion. In fact, the (terror) attacks have increased.”
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party accused the ruling BJP of boasting about straightening out Pakistan after the surgical strike.
“But has Pakistan been really straightened out? Rather Pakistan has been indulging in ceasefire violations along the LoC every day,” the Shiv Sena asked in the editorial. The Sena, also accused the BJP of exploiting the surgical strikes for political gains.
PTI