Taking about the surgical strike carried by Army two years ago, Lt Gen (retd) D S Hooda on Friday said it was natural to have an initial euphoria over the success but the constant hype around the operation was unwarranted.
“I do think there was too much hype over it (surgical strike). The strike was important & we had to do it. Now how much should it have been politicised, whether it was right or wrong is something that should be asked to the politicians,” he told news agency ANI.
#WATCH: Lt Gen (retd) DS Hooda, who was Chief of the Northern Command of the Army when surgical strike was executed in 2016, says “Surgical strike was overhyped & politicised.”https://t.co/P8r8QBd3pL
— ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2018
At the time of the surgical strike in September 2016, DS Hooda was the Northern Army Commander.
Gen Hooda was speaking during a panel discussion on the topic, ‘Role of Cross-Border Operations and surgical strikes,’ on the first day of Military Literature Festival 2018 in Chandigarh.
“Did the overhype help? I say, completely no. If you start having political resonance in military operations, it is not good. There was too much political banter, on both sides, and when military operations get politicised, that is not good,” he added.
The strikes were carried out on September 29, 2016 across the LoC were carried out 11 days after the Uri attack.
The centre also released two videos of the strike, one in June 2018, the second video was released in September.
(with agency input)