New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) Top officials including Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Director General of Military Operations Lt. Gen Ranbir Singh are likely to brief the parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs on the army's surgical strikes.
"Briefing by the Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary and Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on the subject 'Indo-Pak relations with specific reference to surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC)'," said a notice ahead of the committee's meeting here on October 18.
The parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs is headed by Congress' Shashi Tharoor and has high-profile members like Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, BJP's Varun Gandhi, Sugata Bose of the Trinamool Congress, Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party and Mohammad Salim of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
The opposition parties including Congress have accused the BJP-led government of trying to derive political mileage from the surigical strikes. The government has dismissed the allegations.
On Friday, Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence was briefed about the surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army on terror launching pads across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir on September 28-29 night.
Army's Vice Chief, Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat, had briefed the panel headed by BJP's Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd.) for about half an hour.
According to informed sources, information provided to the defence panel is already in the public domain.
The strikes by Indian army, in wake of a terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir that left 19 soldiers dead, have further raised tensions between India and Pakistan.
