PUNE: Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, who was commander of the 3 Corps at Dimapur in the North East when the army carried out a surgical strike across the Myanmar Border in 2015, said here on Friday that he had to halt the Operation shortly before the launch to provide details to the government and make changes in the original plan.

On June 4, 2015, 18 soldiers of the 6 Dogra battalion, then deployed on the Myanmar-Manipur border, were killed in an ambush launched by an insurgent group in the Chandel area of Manipur. The ambush was carried out when the battalion was de-inducting and was set to move to a peace station at Chandigarh.

“The information was quite clear that they (insurgents) had come from across and gone across (the border). Various sites were recced… there was no other option but to plan the operation. Just when the operation was about to be launched, I got a call from Delhi that we need to do something, and this (ambush) must be avenged. That is when the chief of army staff (General Dalbir Singh Suhag) spoke to me. I also got a call from the national security advisor (NSA) asking if I had something in mind. I was a little taken aback because I had already launched the Troops for the operation, they were on their way. I said that the operation was in progress and maybe in 48 hours they will strike. The team was just about crossing the border when we had to halt it. The commanding officer (CO) of the Special Forces (SF) was called back to Manipur to brief the NSA about the operation,” Gen Rawat said at a book launch.

The army chief said, “The troops which had reached the Myanmar border had to later change their route while carrying out the operation, four days from the day it was initially planned, to avoid the risk of getting noticed by insurgents. The SF troops had to wear the uniforms of the 12 Bihar Battalion, which was deployed on the border. They later occupied the forward posts overnight.”

Gen Rawat said, “We had not planned for a situation where the troops may come across civilians after crossing over to Myanmar as the operation was launched around midnight. The troops did encounter three local hunters with dogs and got hold of them and tied them up. We were not carrying morphine, so we had to leave a party of 10 soldiers to look after them.”

The army chief said, “When the troops crossed the border, they found forward militant bunkers empty as it was breakfast time. Our troops launched an attack on the dining hall, causing heavy losses to the group.”

Gen Rawat said, “The secrecy of the operation was maintained to the utmost level as only the CO was aware of it. When the troops reached the forward posts, they were informed two hours prior that they will be carrying out an operation across the border. It was important that we clinically completed the operation to avoid any further setback to the troops.”