After Strike Across Line of Control, Pakistan Goes Into Denial Mode Again

New Delhi: After five Indian commandos crossed the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch to avenge the killing of four Indian soldiers including a Major, Pakistan confirmed three Pakistani soldiers had been killed on Monday but claimed that it wasn't Indian troops, "but non-state actors" from India, who had crossed into its territory.

Pakistan's foreign office claimed in a statement that Indian army had opened fire to provide cover for the planting of explosives "by non-state actors" that killed three Pakistani soldiers and injuring a fourth.
The statement said India's acting deputy high commissioner was summoned and the "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian forces in the Rakhchikri sector on Monday condemned.

"The false claims by India about the alleged cross LoC (Line of Control) adventures are a figment of their imagination and counter-productive for peace and tranquility on the LoC," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement on Tuesday evening, hours after Indian army sources revealed the details of the strike by commandos of the "Ghatak" battalion a day earlier.

This isn't the first time that Pakistan government has denied a cross-border strike by Indian security forces.

After India had announced carrying out surgical strikes at multiple locations several kilometres across the  line of control, Pakistan had quickly denied that anything of the kind had taken place and blamed cross-border firing for killing two Pakistani soldiers.

The 45-minute operation on Monday evening, however, is not being described as a surgical strike. Army sources said the attack, carried out after crossing about 300 metre across the line of control, was "selective targeting" and very limited in scope.

Indian army commandos had targeted a group of Pakistani soldiers on patrol near a temporary post. An explosion was triggered near the Pakistani patrol. Some Pakistanis may have been killed in that blast, say sources. The rest were disoriented and taking advantage of that, a small unit of the battalion-level commandos called "Ghatak (deadly)" crossed about 300 m across the line of control and shot the rest of the soldiers in the patrol.

Sources had indicated to NDTV that the goal of the "localised tactical level operation" authorised at the level of a brigadier was to send a clear message, that if Pakistani soldiers attack Indian soldiers, there will be a definite response.

This was in retaliation of Pakistan troops, part of its Border Action Team, or BAT, infiltrating almost 400 metre to target Indian Army soldiers, sources said. BAT groups include special forces of the Pakistan Army and terrorists and are known to intrude into India to target Indian soldiers patrolling along the border.