Surgical strikes had nothing to do with Uri terror attack: Omar Abdullah

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday stoked a controversy saying that the surgical strikes had nothing to do with Uri terror attack.

Srinagar: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday stoked a controversy, saying that the surgical strikes had nothing to do with 2016 Uri terror attack, in which 18 soldiers were martyred.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister claimed that the surgical strike was carried out last year because a minister was asked "an insulting question".

While making the sensational claims on Twitter, Abdullah wrote, "A news anchor's question could have provoked a wider conflict with Pakistan &we are supposed to feel safer with this sort of decision making."

In a first, India carried out surgical strikes on the intervening night of September 28 and 29 on seven terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) with the Army inflicting "significant casualties" on terrorists preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kahmir (PoK), days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Uri attack would not go unpunished.

The strikes came 11 days after the attack by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Kashmir over which PM Modi had said the attackers will not go "unpunished" and that they will not be forgiven and the sacrifice of 18 jawans will not go in vain.

The #SurgicalStrike had nothing to do with #Uri. It was planned because a minister was asked "an insulting question". What does one say! — Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 1, 2017

A news anchor's question could have provoked a wider conflict with Pakistan &we are supposed to feel safer with this sort of decision making — Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 1, 2017