The Two Sides of a Coin are Never the Same.

1. According to Indian media the Indian Army Special Forces entered Myanmar bordering Manipur and Nagaland and killed Indian militants at two Camps. This was in retaliation to the recent terribly successful militant attack upon an Indian military commando convoy in Manipur killing 18 Commandos and injuring many.

2. The Indian Army General who broke the news on the counter attack was tight lipped about the casualty inflicted on the militants and the actual area where the operation had taken place. But the Indian media came out with a confusing statistics  of militant casualty ranging from 15 to 100. What is a fact is that there is no body count and no known militant leaders were killed in the counter attack that was supposed to have been a 45 minutes operation.

3. A young union minister of state Rathore the former Indian Army officer of Olympic rifle marksman repute took the opportunity to warn all Countries of similar invasion of their territories through such Indian military special forces. Close neighbour Pakistan reacted strongly to this threat whilst Bangladesh and Bhutan remained mute.  Meanwhile an experienced serving Indian General came on record to sensibly declare that there was no relation between the counter attack against militants in Myanmar India border area with situation at Line of Control. Thus exposing the inexperienced political brashness of Rathore and also soothing over unnecessary irritation at international border points.

4. Myanmar issued a strong statement of denial of any Indian special forces entering Myanmar and killing militants. The operation according to Myanmar was limited to Indian side of Myanmar India border and it was verified by their army battalion on the ground.

The fact is that an Indian army counter militant operation did occur and it may have been conducted within the border of Myanmar but with Myanmar military knowledge whose ground battalion also ensured that no unnecessary excess encroachment incurred. The Indian media reports that Indian national security team will be visiting Myanmar for future joint militant strategy. Both India and Myanmar have their own share of militants or insurgency groups and with a porous Indo-Myanmar border, it makes sense to cooperate but not too publicly for other political and sovereignty image reasons.

It is possible that the Indian special forces counter attack was not able to achieve the desired strategic result though media publicity was good for the public image of the Army and the Government. The militants had to have expected counter attacks after they had managed to inflict such a devastatingly humiliating blow upon the Indian Army. So in all probability the targeted militant camps could have been evacuated. They had adequate time since the counter attack was not immediate. That maybe the reason why the special forces could not claim killing any known militant leaders because they just were not in the camps.

The Indian political leaders described the militant attack on its commando convoy as ' cowardly '. Actually it can be anything but cowardly because in military terms it was a bold well planned successful attack. Taking upon a commando convoy cannot be cowardly. It could have been suicidal if the Commandos had been able to react and militarily engage the attackers.