DGMO, foreign secy to brief to House panel on surgical strikes

Top officials, including the foreign secretary and the director general of military operations, are scheduled to brief a panel of members of Parliament, including congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, on the surgical strikes conducted by the army across the Line of Control on September 28.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, is scheduled to meet on Tuesday when it will be briefed on Indo-Pak relations with specific reference to recent surgical strikes.

‘Briefing by the foreign secretary, the home secretary, the defence secretary and the DGMO on the subject ‘Indo-Pak relations with specific reference to surgical strikes across the Line of Control,’ a notice regarding the October 18 meeting issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat says.

The meeting assumes significance as the governemt had earlier expressed reservations over briefing on the same topic to the Parliamentary Committee on Defence.

However, after initial reluctance, the parliamentary panel on Defence headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP B C Khanduri was briefed by Vice Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat on the surgical strikes.

IMAGE: DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh.