UriAttack: Pakistani army demanded ‘actionable intelligence’ to support New Delhi’s accusations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan refuted as “unfounded and premature” India’s charge that it was behind the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri that killed 17 soldiers, with its army demanding “actionable intelligence” to support New Delhi’s accusation. Following the dawn attack, India blamed Pakistan for the latest attack on the Indian Army. Home Minister Rajnath Singh directly attacked Pakistan saying it was a “terrorist state” and should be isolated. Pakistan army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said that following the attack Director General of Military Operation (DGMO) of the two countries discussed the situation along the Line of Control through hotline. “Refuting the unfounded and pre-mature Indian allegation, Pakistani DGMO asked his counterpart to share any actionable intelligence,” Radio Pakistan reported citing an ISPR release.

Bajwa reiterated that no infiltration was allowed from the Pakistani soil because of “water-tight arrangements” in place on both sides of LoC and the Working Boundary. Heavily armed militants stormed a battalion headquarters of the Army in North Kashmir’s Uri town in the wee hours, killing 17 jawans and injuring 19 other personnel in the strike in which four ultras were neutralised.

Earlier, the army hinted at Jaish-e-Mohammad’s role behind the Uri terror attack. ‘The killed terrorists were all foreign terrorists and as per the initial reports, they belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad. Along with the terrorists, we recovered four AK-47 rifles, four under barrel grenade launchers, a large number of grenades and other war-like stores,’ Lt. Gen. Singh said.

Divulging details of the terror attack, he said, ‘A group of heavily armed terrorists opened fire on an administrative base of one of the units of the Indian Army located at Uri in Kashmir at 5:30 early this morning. The firefight between the terrorists and Indian Army continued till approximately 8:30 in the morning. During this firefight, all four terrorists have been killed by the Indian Army.’

Lt. Gen. Singh said the terrorists opened fire with incendiary ammunition along with the automatic fire of small arms which led to the tents and some temporary shelters located inside the army camp catching fire.

‘There were additional troops located in the administrative base at Uri which was because of the routine turnover of units as a part of the normal relief programme. There have been a total of 17 army fatal casualties. However of these 13 to 14 casualties have been primarily because of the tents and the temporary shelters having caught fire,’ he added.

Lt. Gen. Singh said the operation for the clearance of the entire complex is still in progress, adding the Indian Army is carrying out a very deliberate and a methodical search of the entire area in and around the military complex at Uri.

With inputs from PTI and ANI