Pahalgam Terror Attack: PM Modi Charts Tough Course After Heinous Kashmir Strike | X/@mygovindia
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short his Saudi Arabia visit following the Pahalgam terrorist attack and avoided Pakistan airspace on the way back to India, chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Wednesday afternoon to draw up a response to what he had earlier termed as a “heinous act”.
About Pahalgam Terror Attack
The attack in the picturesque Baisaran area of Pahalgam, which was often referred to as “Mini Switzerland”, had left 26 people, including citizens from 14 states and two other countries, dead. Following the strike, The Resistance Front (TRF), an outfit of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, had claimed responsibility for it. Modi, who was in Saudi Arabia when the terrorists struck at around 2:30 p.m. at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, had curtailed his visit short and flown back home in his Air India One aircraft. However, unlike on Tuesday when he had used the Pakistani airspace for going to Jeddah, on the way back the aircraft avoided it completely for security reasons – and instead flew over the Arabian Sea before entering India via Gujarat and then heading north towards Delhi.
In Delhi, the Boeing 777-300 flight arrived at the Palam Air Base, and soon after, Modi was briefed by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the incident and its investigation.
PM Modi Hold A Meeting Of The Cabinet Committee On Security
Later in the day, the Prime Minister convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, which was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, who was sent to Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation there. Another member of the CCS, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was on an 11-day visit to the United States, was also told to cut short her visit and return.
On his return to Delhi, Shah — who had visited the attack site, the injured in the hospital, and paid his tribute to the deceased in Srinagar — also briefed the PM about the situation on the ground. Incidentally, Rajnath Singh had earlier in the day, while addressing a memorial lecture in New Delhi, said that “not just those who perpetrated the attack, but even those who conspired from behind the scenes to commit such nefarious acts on Indian soil will soon get an appropriate response.”
Though he had not named Pakistan in his address, Singh had indicated what he meant when he added: “History is witness to the withering away of nations not due to the action of the adversary, but due to the result of their own misdeeds. I hope people across the border look at lessons of history more closely”.
Meanwhile, Shah also issued a statement on “X” in which he said, “With a heavy heart, paid last respects to the deceased of the Pahalgam terror attack. Bharat will not bend to terror. The culprits of this dastardly terror attack will not be spared.
