Pakistani Officer Admits India Carried Out Surgical Strikes: Report

New Delhi: A Pakistan police officer has admitted that India indeed carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and killed at least five soldiers and several terrorists in an operation that Islamabad denies, news channel CNN News18 reported on Wednesday.

Ghulam Akbar, the Superintendent of Police (Special Branch) of the Mirpur Range in Paksitani Kashmir, told the network that the strikes took place at many sectors on the early hours of September 29.

The report said on Wednesday that one of its journalists, Manoj Gupta, posed as Inspector General of Police Mushtaq while speaking to Mr Akbar over telephone.

The channel aired excerpts of the conversation, quoting Mr Akbar as saying that he personally knew about the strikes.

The Indian operation, he said, occurred at Samana in Bhimber, Hazira in Poonch, Dudhniyal in Neelam and Kayani in Hathian Bala, the border sectors on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC).

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Mr Akbar said the Pakistan Army cordoned off all these areas immediately after the Indian incursion.

"Sir, it was night... you can say roughly 3-4 hours... between 2 am and 4 or 5 a.m... The attack continued between that time," he said.

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"There were attacks on separate places... Several places were attacked... They also met (with) resistance," Mr Akbar said.

Mr Akbar also said that the Pakistan Army was caught unawares by the Indian attack and lost five soldiers. The channel said it had the names of the killed Pakistani soldiers but did not reveal them.

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The Mirpur police officer also claimed that the bodies of an unknown number of terrorists were quickly removed by the Pakistani military and taken away in ambulances.

He said the bodies many have been buried in villages.

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Mr Akbar also revealed that the Pakistani Army facilitates the movement of terrorists in forward areas and arranges for their crossing over to India, the channel said.

"The army brings them, sir... it is in their hands," Mr Akbar said.

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He said he did not know about the accurate number of terrorists killed because the Pakistan Army its guards its links to terrorists from even local authorities and police.

The admission by the senior police officer came amid Pakistan's staunch denial of India Army's statement that its soldiers had crossed the LoC and destroyed seven launch pads or staging areas for terrorists and inflicted "significant casualties".

Pakistan even took a group of local and foreign journalists to some areas near the LoC to claim that the surgical strikes never happened.

Commandos of the Indian Army had crossed the Line of Control and struck the targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the terror attack on a military base in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri that left 20 soldiers dead last month.