‘Surgical strike a ‘huge morale booster’ for armed forces’

This 2013 photo taken at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., and supplied by J.R. Simplot Company shows wilted conventional potato plants without resistance to the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine on the left next to surviving rows of J.R. Simplot Co.'s genetically engineered potato plants that resist the disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, that it has approved commercial planting of two types of potatoes that are genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine. (Nicolas Champouret/J.R. Simplot Company via AP)

'Surgical strike a 'huge morale booster' for armed forces'NEW DELHI: The surgical strike at the terror launch pads in PoK last year resulted in “significant casualties” to the terrorists and their supporters across the border, government said today.

“During the surgical strike, significant casualties were done to terrorists and those who provide support to terrorists,” Minister of State for Defense Subhash Bhamre said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

The surgical strike on the intervening night of September 28 and 29, 2016, was carried out by the Army to foil the designs of Pakistan-based terrorist groups to strike on Indian security forces and other places of importance, he said.

It also came as a “huge morale booster” for the rank and file of the security forces, Bhamre said.

Though no specific assessment of psychological conditions/morale of defense personnel has been carried out after the surgical strike, he said “notwithstanding this, surgical strikes by themselves were a huge booster for the rank and file of the Armed Forces.”

The Minister also said that all those who participated in the surgical strike were suitably rewarded.–PTI