NEW DELHI: Defence minister Arun Jaitley on Monday extolled the “surgical strikes” carried out by the Army Special Forces against “terror launch pads” across the Line of Control last September, but refrained from talking about the continuing standoff at Doklam with China.

In the customary radio broadcast to armed forces personnel on the eve of the 71st Independence Day, Jaitley said Indian soldiers continue to be vigilant along the 778-km LoC to defend the nation in the backdrop of Pakistan continuing with its “abhorrent acts”.

But the minister studiously avoided any reference to the two-month-old faceoff between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army on the Bhutanese territory of Doklam, which has led the two countries to strengthen their positions with additional troops, artillery, tanks and other weapons along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control in one of their most serious confrontations ever.

Dwelling upon the “surgical strikes”, Jaitley said Pakistan had continued with its “nefarious activities” despite India’s “repeated requests” to not allow “our territory occupied by it (Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir)” to train terrorists and push them into India.

“We ran out of patience as these terrorists were not only targeting our armed forces but also civilians. Based on specific and credible inputs about some terrorist teams having positioned themselves at the launch pads along the LoC to carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states, the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes on September 29 at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists,” he said.

“The operations were focussed on ensuring these terrorists did not succeed in their design to cause destruction and endanger the lives of our citizens. During these counter-terrorist operations, significant casualties were caused to terrorists and those providing support to them,” he added.

Underlining the Modi’s government’s commitment to the welfare of soldiers, Jaitley said the decision to implement the 7th Central Pay Commission on allowances would benefit 14 lakh military personnel. The Siachen allowance, for instance, has been increased from Rs 14,000 per month to Rs 30,000. The counter-insurgency operations allowance, in turn, has been hiked from between Rs 3,000 and Rs 11,700 per month to Rs 6,000 and Rs 16,900 per month.

As for the benefits of the one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen, the minister said sums of Rs 4,156 crore and Rs 2,385 crore had been paid as the first and second instalments of arrears to around 20.40 lakh ex-servicemen/family pensioners and 15.93 lakh ex-servicemen, respectively. Further, Rs 2,250 crore has also been paid to 15.13 lakh ex-servicemen as the third instalment so far.