What is a surgical strike?

India said on Thursday it carried out surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads across the LoC inflicting heavy casualties, triggering a sharp warning from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Gen Ranbir Singh said the targeted terrorists had planned "to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and various other metros in our country. "The operation was basically focussed to ensure that these terrorists do not succeed in their design of infiltration and carrying out destruction and endangering the lives of citizens of our country," he said.

A surgical strike is defined as a military attack intended to inflict damage on a specific target, with little or no collateral damage to surrounding areas. A surgical strike is "a calculated manoeuvre to ensure you deliver maximum damage which gives a big surprise to your adversary. Retired Lt General Shankar Prasad told NDTV that a surgical strike is an intricate operation that "needs a lot of grit to carry out". "The ground is very tough.

The targets are movable targets. It means carrying out an attack and coming back without any damage to yourself," the retired general said, adding, "every single sepoy is briefed on the sketch. Everyone in the team has specific responsibility." Between midnight and 4.30 am, Indian Army para commandos attacked five to eight terrorist launch pads from one to three km across the Line of Control. Each launch pad is estimated to have had 30 to 40 terrorists and the Army said there were "massive casualties of terrorists, their guides and handlers." The attack, sources said, took the terrorist by complete surprise. There were no Indian casualties.

According to Financial Express, Surgical strike minimizes collateral damages. It helps in responding to the enemy in a time bound manner and reduces the chances of full- scale war with later negotiations. Precision bombing is an example of the surgical strike in which soldiers carry out surprise and rapid bombings on targets with aircraft. The strike leaves the target with no time to escape. As per the details available till now, India’s surgical strike across Pakistan on Wednesday night was a precision bombing exercise. Precision bombing can be contrasted with carpet bombing which inflicts more casualties and collateral damages.