Dehradun: Lieutenant-General Devraj Anbu, Vice-Chief of Army Staff, has said the country’s security forces won’t hesitate to launch another surgical strike on terrorist bases if the need arises.

“The surgical strike on militant launch pads across the border was a show of strength by our armed forces and we won’t hesitate to do it again if the enemy challenges us,” Lt Gen Anbu said in response to a question by reporters on the sidelines of the Indian Military Academy’s Passing Out Parade (POP) in Dehradun on Saturday.

India conducted the surgical strike on September 29, 2016 across the Line of Control in response to a terrorist attack on an Indian Army base in the Uri sector, Jammu & Kashmir, earlier that month. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

On Friday, Lt Gen (retd) D.S. Hooda, who was the Northern Army commander at the time the surgical strike was carried out, said the constant hype around the precision operation was unwarranted.

He, however, said the initial euphoria over the success of the military action was only natural.

Responding to a question from the audience during a panel discussion in Chandigarh, Lt Gen Hooda said that with hindsight, it might have been better had “we done it [the surgical strike] secretly”.

On the plans to give women combat roles in the armed forces, Lt Gen Anbu said different aspects of the proposition are being examined as conditions along the borders with Pakistan and China are different from the rest of the country.

In July this year, army chief General Bipin Rawat said the process to allow women in combat roles, currently an exclusive domain of men, was moving fast, adding that women would be recruited initially for positions in the military police.

However, Gen Rawat revealed that the army was not yet ready for women in combat roles but said there were several other fields the army was thinking of inducting women, including plans to have women as interpreters.

Lt Gen Anbu was in Dehradun to address the IMA pass-out parade as the reviewing officer. The parade saw a total of 427 male cadets, including 80 from seven friendly foreign countries, graduate from the academy.