Army rejects Pakistani media reports claiming 8 Indian casualties, calls footage ‘doctored’
A screengrab of Pakistani show ‘Capital Talk’ on Geo News
The Indian Army on Friday denied Pakistani media reports claiming that eight Indian soldiers were killed and one captured alive in the raids in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), adding that the clips were ‘fake’ and example of ‘black propaganda’.
Army sources, however, confirmed that one soldier suffered minor injuries from stepping on a mine once he was back on the Indian side of the Line of Control.
According to ANI sources, the images played out on Pakistan TV channels claiming to show Indian casualties are ‘doctored or morphed clips and fake.’
Rejecting a report published by the Pakistani media claiming ‘eight Indian Army personnel were killed in the cross-border firing’ along the Line of Control (LoC) and an Indian soldier was taken into custody by Pakistani forces, the Indian Army sources stated that they were completely false and baseless.
“One soldier from 37 RR with weapon inadvertently crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control, following which Pakistan has been informed by Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Ranbir Singh over the hotline,” an Army source told the news agency.
Stating that such inadvertent crossing by army and civilians are not unusual on either side, sources added, “They are returned through existing mechanisms. As regard report of killing of eight Indian Army personnel reported in sections of Pakistan media the report is completely false and baseless.”
Quoting security sources, Pakistani daily the Dawn on Thursday reported that soldiers from the Indian Army were killed in the episode of cross-border firing.
In his show ‘Capital Talk’ on Geo News, Hamid Mir said, “Fourteen Indian soldiers were killed in two sectors.” Defence analyst Major General (Retd) Ijaz Awan, who was on his show, confirmed his claim.
An Indian soldier by the name Chandu Babulal Chohan was taken into custody by Pakistani forces, however, there is as yet no official confirmation of this claim, reported the Dawn quoting sources.
The Pakistani media witnessed such claims on Thursday after the Indian armed forces conducted surgical strikes late on Wednesday night on terror launch pads across the LoC to neutralise terrorists planning to infiltrate into the Indian territory.
With ANI inputs
