New Delhi: Former defense minister Manohar Parrikar ridiculed the Congress party for questioning the veracity of the surgical strike conducted by the Army in the PoK in 2016. Taking a jibe at Congress president Rahul Gandhi who had questioned the surgical strike, Parrikar taunted saying that 'the army would have carried Rahul along for the operation'. "When we did the surgical strike, the Opposition parties said that they never happened. I would have taken the Opposition party on the surgical strike. I would have told the Army to take Rahul Gandhi and do the surgical strike", the Goa Chief Minister said.

Referring to the surgical strike operation of September 2016, Parrikar further said, "If you want to do a surgical strike, then the most important thing is secrecy. Only four people were knowing about the strike including the prime minister, me, the Army chief and the director general of military operations besides Army's Zone Commander and the Commander in Srinagar."

The Army had reported on September 29, 2016, eleven days after the Uri attack that claimed 18 jawans, that it had conducted surgical strikes against suspected militant launch pads in the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

He further accused the Congress of spreading misinformation against him and the BJP. Parrikar appealed to BJP workers to respond to such campaigns during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

(With inputs from PTI)