New Delhi:
The Opposition has fully backed the government for “any action”, condemning the Pahalgam massacre that has cost 26 lives and unleashed one of the worst face-offs with Pakistan. After attending an all-party meeting this evening where the leaders were briefed by foreign minister S Jaishankar and intelligence officers, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said, “All political parties have uniformly condemned it and the Opposition has given full support to the government to take any action”.
“We want peace to be restored in Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible,” added Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. Mr Gandhi will visit Kashmir’s Anantnag tomorrow, where the injured are admitted in the district hospital.
“We are with the Center in the fight against terrorism. The country should fight it unitedly. The heads of all political parties have given the Prime Minister a message,” said Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, seeking a meeting with PM Modi.
“Senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the government briefed all the MPs about where the lapse happened and under what circumstances this terrorist attack took place,” sources quoted parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju as saying.
Twenty-six people had died on Sunday afternoon as terrorists from a Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot opened fire on a group of unsuspecting tourists in the scenic meadows of Baisaran, often dubbed “mini Switzerland”. Many were injured.
Among the 25 tourists who died, one was a Nepali national. The rest came from 14 states across India.
The government has vowed retaliation. While several non-military moves have been initiated that includes indefinite suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, shutting the Attari border and revoking visas of all Pakistan nationals currently in India, many are not ruling out military action. Surgical strikes and air strikes were conducted on terror camps across the Line of Control after the terror attacks on Uri and Pulwama.
From Sunday, in an escalation, the government cancelled all visas, including medical visas, of Pakistan nationals in India.