Pakistan may continue to deny India’s assertions about the "surgical strikes" on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but CNN News18 can confirm – based on disclosures by a senior Pakistani police official – that the strikes did indeed take place and killed at least five Pakistani soldiers and an unspecified number of militants.
Six days after India said it had carried out the strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the response of the Pakistani establishment has ranged from absolute dismissal by its military leadership to ridicule of India’s claim by its defence minister.
But that has now been shattered with just one phone call that CNN-News18’s Investigations Editor Manoj Gupta made to a senior police official in PoK who, under the impression he was speaking to his superior, rattled off the events of that tumultuous night and confirmed every single claim made by the Indian Army.
Ghulam Akbar, Superintendent of Police (Special Branch) of the Mirpur Range in PoK, is heard admitting that the surgical strikes had indeed taken place at many sectors on the early hours of September 29. During the call with Gupta, he clearly stated that the Pakistani Army was caught unawares by the Indian attack and lost 5 of its soldiers (CNN News18 has their names) and that the bodies of unknown number of terrorists were quickly removed by the Pakistani military.
CNN-News18’s Gupta called Akbar pretending to be ‘IG Mushtaq’ and sought details about the casualties of that night.
In response, Akbar paints a true picture of the areas that he personally knew were under attack that night – Samana in Bhimber, Hazira in Poonch, Dudhniyal in Neelam and Kayani in Hathian Bala – and said Pakistani Army has cordoned off all these areas immediately after the surgical strikes.
India has not officially announced how many people it killed during the strikes, only saying it managed to neutralize a "significant" number of terrorists. However, Islamabad has pooh poohed the Indian claims of surgical strikes, and said it lost two soldiers in cross border firing by Indian troops.
"Sir, that was night...you can say roughly 3-4 hours... between 2 am and 4 or 5am... the attack continued between that time," Akbar told CNN-News18, even confirming the time of the commando raid.Also Read: Surgical Strikes: The Telephone Conversation That Nailed Pakistan's Lie
"There were attacks on separate places... several places were attacked... they also met resistance," he said.
And in another revelation that could put Pakistan on a mat, Akbar also revealed that the Pakistani Army facilitates jihadi movement in forward areas and arranges for their crossing over to India.
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