Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said there was no longer a need to share videos of the Indian Army's surgical strikes on terror launchpads along the Line of Control, referring to a news channel's report that a Pakistani police officer had acknowledged the attacks. "I am happy that a television channel worked as a detective and spoke to Mirpur range superintendent of police in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," he said, according to IANS.

According to CNN-News18, the superintendent of police of PoK's Mirpur range, Ghulam Akbar, on Wednesday confirmed the surgical strikes after a reporter from the news channel pretended to be his senior "IG Mushtaq" and questioned him about the Indian Army's September 29 operation. According to News18, Akbar had said that the attacks had taken place in many sectors, five Pakistani soldiers had been killed, and the Pakistan Army had quickly removed the bodies of an unknown number of terrorists.

On Wednesday, the Indian Army had handed over video footage of the surgical strikes it conducted along the LoC to the central government. The move to release clips of the operation followed controversy around the authenticity of the strikes. While Pakistan had claimed that the strikes had never taken place, several Opposition party leaders, including Congress' Sanjay Nirupam and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, had questioned the veracity of the mission.

Describing the strikes as "100% successful", Parrikar said at an event of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Agra that many former Army personnel had expressed their wish to fight for the country if needed. He called on citizens to be "vigilant against frustrated terrorists" who will "continue to attack India" after being embarrassed by the surgical strikes. The defence minister also questioned the loyalty of those who had raised doubts about the Army's operation.

Relations between India and Pakistan soured since the Uri attack, in which 18 soldiers were killed, while two others succumbed to their injuries later. India said it had carried out surgical strikes along the Line of Control on September 29, Pakistan had denied any such operations and said it was nothing but cross-border firing. Pakistan also denied India's accusation that it was involved in the Uri attack.