PM Modi calls 2nd cabinet meeting to review security after surgical strikes by Indian Army across LoC
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is today expected to review security along India's border with Pakistan and at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir after the Indian Army's "surgical strikes" against terrorists waiting to infiltrate into the country.
Here are the latest developments in this big story:
PM Modi is likely to head a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the second such meeting of the government's topmost ministers and officials since yesterday.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that he will officially take up with Pakistan the release of the soldier the army said inadvertently crossed over the Line of Control on Thursday and was captured.
Security forces are on high alert along the Line of Control and the International Border with Pakistan and over two lakh people in hundreds of villages within 10 km of these are being evacuated both in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
The Indian Army announced on Thursday that it had carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir at seven different terrorist launch pads up to two kilometres across the Line of Control or LoC and that "scores of terrorists were killed."
Lt General Ranbir Singh, the army's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) said the strikes inflicted "significant casualties" on the terrorists "and their supporters" and that Pakistan was informed by him on Thursday morning of the action.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called a cabinet meeting today and a joint session of the Pakistani Parliament on October 5, next Wednesday.
Pakistan has said India's announcement of the strike is "a lie" and that it lost two soldiers in unprovoked cross-border firing by India. The Pakistani army warned that if Indian troops cross the border, it will strike back.
The army has denied Pakstani reports that eight soldiers were killed in the strikes in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and one was captured alive.
The surgical strikes are being seen as the first major military action taken by India after terrorists from Pakistan attacked an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri earlier this month, killing 19 soldiers. PM Modi had said that the Uri attack would "not go unpunished."
The US has reasserted that Pakistan should fight against terrorism and called for de-escalation of tension. "Obviously, an (terrorist) attack like that (in Uri) escalates tensions," said State Department Spokesperson John Kirby.
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