Congress' Rajiv Shukla claims six surgical strikes were conducted under UPA regime, starting from 2008

Congress on Thursday claimed that six surgical strikes were conducted by the army under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. In a press conference, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla claimed that six surgical strikes were conducted under the UPA regime while two took place during the tenure of late former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, reported Times Now. CNN-News18 further reported that Congress stated that the first surgical strike took place on 19 June, 2008 at the Bhattal sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The second occurred on 30 August to 1 September, 2011 at Sharda sector in Kel. [caption id=“attachment_6102931” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The third strike, as claimed by the Congress, took place on 6 January, 2013 at the Sawan Patra checkpost. The fourth took place on 27 to 28 July, 2013 at the Nazapir sector, while the fifth took place at Neelam Valley on 6 August, 2013. Congress claimed that the sixth surgical strike under the UPA regime took place on 23 Demeber, 2013. Earlier on Thursday, former prime minister Manmohan Singh — in an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times — said that “multiple surgical strikes” were conducted during UPA’s tenure but the Indian government at that time did not need to ride on the achievements of the army. “Let me remind you that our armed forces were always given a free hand to operationally respond to every threat. Multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure too. For us, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises.” “In the past 70 years, a government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicise our forces are shameful and unacceptable. All this is being done to draw the attention away from unpardonable failures of Modi government on the economic front, on jobs, on rural distress, on MSMEs and the informal sector,” the former prime minister told Hindustan Times. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and several BJP leaders have hit out at Manmohan over his government’s allegedly ineffective handling of terror. Shah especially has referred to Manmohan as “ mauni baba ” — which literally translates to “mute saint” — multiple times at campaign rallies. In his interview, however, Manmohan seems to have broken his silence and responded conclusively to charges that his government was soft on terror.