Six years to surgical strike, here's how it went down

One September 18, in 2016, four fedayeen attackers of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed launched an audacious suicide attack on an Indian Army brigade Headquarters in Uri district, in Jammu and Kashmir.

The fedayeen got lucky -- usually, such groups of four to six fighters are intercepted by Indian Army patrols along the Line-of-Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Muzaffarabad region -- having caught a rear administrative base camp off guard.

All four of the attackers were killed, but not before they killed 19 Indian soldiers.

With New Delhi under pressure, the stage was set for a performative attack across the LoC, targeting the launch-pads used by militants to conduct their cross-border attacks.

On September 29, three to four teams, comprising a total of 70–80 soldiers from the 4th and 9th battalions of the Indian Army's Para Special Forces, crossed over to the Pakistan-held side, under the cover of heavy artillery fire.

Teams from 4 Para crossed the LoC in the Nowgam sector of Kupwara district, while teams from 9 Para simultaneously crossed the LoC in Poonch district.

By 2 AM, according to army sources, the special forces teams had travelled 1–3 km on foot, and had begun destroying terrorist bases with hand-held grenades and 84 mm rocket launchers.

The teams then swiftly returned to the Indian side of the Line of Control, suffering only one injury, a soldier wounded after tripping a land mine.

According to the Indian Express, which claimed to have interviewed five eyewitness across the LoC, several members of Lashkar-e-Taiba had met for Friday prayers at a Lashkar-affiliated mosque in Chalhana.

"The Lashkar men gathered there were blaming the Pak Army for failing to defend the border", the Indian Express quoted one of them as saying, adding that they, "would soon give India an answer it would never forget."

As it was, the cross-LoC raid led to a heightened period of tensions between India and Pakistan, resulting in intensified artillery and small arms fire across the LoC that led to multiple deaths on both sides.

Was the "surgical strike" a big deal?

Cross LoC raids have been dutifully carried out by highly-trained special forces operatives of both sides on numerous occasions -- not to mention infiltrations by fedayeen suicide attackers from the Islamist terrorist groups that Rawalpindi has seen fit to grow in its own backyard, often to the detriment of the state it claims to serve.