Five things you need to know about India's surgical strike

Seven terror launch pads were targeted across the LoC by special forces of the Indian Army during the 'surgical strike' overnight in which heliborne and ground forces were used, defence sources said today.

Here are five things you need to know about the strike: 

1) Sources said the operation began at around midnight last night and ended at around 4:30 AM this morning. The targeted launch pads were two to three kms from the Line of Control (LoC) inside Pakistan and were under surveillance for over one week.
     

2) The operation was a combination of heliborne and ground forces. DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said India inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists and those who are trying to support them.
      

3) The announcement of the strikes by the Indian army was made soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS). After the strikes, the DGMO said he had spoken to the Pakistani Director General of Military Operations and shared with him details of the operation.
     

4) Pakistan, however,dismissed as "fabrication of truth" India's claim that it has conducted a military operation across the LoC to target terrorist launching pads, terming it as a "quest" by India to create media hype by rebranding cross-border fire as a surgical strike.

5)  The Indian govt claims defence forces have killed 117 terrorists and foiled their 20 terror attempts in the last eight months. 

• Surgical Strike
• Pakistan
• India