The Army has handed over to the government video clips of the cross-LoC surgical strikes as per laid down procedure, Union Minister Hansraj Ahir said on Wednesday, amid a growing chorus that evidence of the operation on terror launch pads in PoK be made public.
Ahir, the Minister of State for Home, said there is a process for putting such issues in perspective which was duly followed by the Army as well as the government.
Separately, Kiren Rijiju, also a MoS for Home, said "everyone should have faith in the government and allow the Army to take its own call".
"The laid down procedure has been followed. The DGMO briefed (about the surgical strikes). It was not the Defence Minister nor the Prime Minister and not the Home Minister. It was the DGMO who briefed (the media). That was the right thing to do and they (Army) did it.
"There was a time when written documents were submitted. Now the times have changed. Now clips are given and the clips have been given," Ahir told reporters.
The statements by Ahir and Rijiju came amid demands that government release the footage+ of Army's recent surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
"Have faith in the government and leave it to the Army," Rijiju told reporters here when asked about the demand for release of proof of the surgical strikes by the Army.
Swamy, a Rajya Sabha member, said anybody questioning the operation should prove prima facie evidence to support his allegation but added that an video should be released following a newspaper report on Wednesday that gave details of the operation.
"I think they should edit the video of the logistics value of it and show the other part, showing explosions, the dead body... they have got in the video. So all these parts can be released," he said.
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POLITICAL SLUGFEST
* Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam had called the surgical strikes "fake"
* AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal too had raised questions over the strikes
* BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in favour in putting out edited version of video
* Most experts have spoken against producing proof of Army strikes in PoK
* Congress has insisted it never questioned the authenticity of the strikes
