NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday highlighted the 2016 surgical strikes as a historic turning point that established a bold precedent for India’s national security and counter-terrorism posture. Addressing the nation during the 138th episode of his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat, Modi noted that the military operation—executed across the Line of Control on the intervening night of September 28 and 29, 2016—completes 10 years on Monday.
Modi recalled that the cross-border strikes against terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were launched 11 days after the deadly Uri militant attack claimed the lives of 18 Indian soldiers. He emphasized that the cross-border operation delivered a long-overdue, decisive reply to prolonged cross-border terror strikes, demonstrating to the world that India possesses both the political resolve and military capability to act preemptively across the border to dismantle hostile networks.
The Prime Minister asserted that the surgical strikes inaugurated a robust ten-year trajectory of assertive deterrence, pointing to subsequent military responses from the 2019 Balakot aerial strikes to recent cross-border counter-terror operations. In past decades, he noted, public demands for concrete countermeasures against safe havens in Pakistan were often sidelined, leading to recurring spates of urban violence like the September 2008 Delhi serial blasts and the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks. Under the current administration, Modi reiterated, India operates under an uncompromising policy of zero tolerance against external aggression.
Modi also marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, paying tribute to the victims, which included many Indian nationals. Reflecting on his 2014 visit to the National September 11 Memorial in New York, he extended condolences to the bereaved families on behalf of the nation and emphasized that the global scourge of terrorism requires sustained, coordinated international vigilance.
Turning to domestic governance, the Prime Minister shared updates on the national census, confirming that the initial phase is nearing completion with enumerators having collected data from more than 32 crore households. He applauded administrative teams conducting field enumeration in difficult terrain across Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, while urging citizens to make use of digital self-enumeration tools.
