Uri Surgical Strike

Three years ago, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes against terror launchpads on and along the Line of Control (LoC). The surgical strikes were carried out nearly 10 days after the Uri terror attack where 18 soldiers were killed when four terrorists launched a barrage of grenades at the Army's 12 Brigade headquarters in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. Recalling the night of October 28-29 when Special Forces of the Indian Army carried out the surgical strikes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said three years ago on this day he did not sleep all night and was waiting for his phone to ring.

On the night of October 28-29, at H-hour, a coded signal went out to the teams. "The operators opened up with the portable artillery they had backpacked across the LoC-Carl Gustaf rocket launchers, thermobaric rockets, under-barrel grenade launchers clipped on rifles and 'Milkor' multiple grenade launchers that spat out six 40 mm grenades in one pull of the trigger," the India Today magazine had said in its cover story on the surgical strike in 2016. It added: "Six launchpads at Kel, Lipa, Athmuqam, Tattapani and Bhimber, located within five kilometres of the LoC, were hit near-simultaneously. The explosions were captured on hand-held cameras and by Indian Army drones floating above, relaying the images back to base. At each location, the operation was terminated in minutes."