Share

India won’t be cowed down by such attacks: Pranab

DGMO said that the fearless sacrifice by Army is something to be saluted and that any nefarious design by enemy will be thwarted by the Indian Army.

Advertisement

Helicopters flew the injured soldiers from Uri to the army’s base hospital in Srinagar, about 70 km away. He said he had spoken to his Pakistani counterpart and conveyed India’s “serious concerns”.

“In the past many Indians were involved in the terrorist acts for which India had blamed Pakistan”, he asserted.

India’s army said the militants who attacked its base at Uri, south-west of Kashmir’s capital Srinagar, were using Pakistani weapons.

Singh said he was deeply distressed by the terror incident and the loss of 17 soldiers. “I also pray for those injured in this terrorist attack”.

The phrase “strong partnership” in the USA statement was a reiteration of secretary of state John Kerry remarks at a recent news briefing in New Delhi, where he had said, echoing India, that the U.S. “cannot and will not make distinction between good and bad terrorism”.

“It is high time that we start and we carry out operations whether inside Kashmir or across the line of control”. “Nobody could have come there without the connivance of the Pakistan regime”, he said.

The former Bihar Chief Minister flayed Modi for what he said was “deteriorating” condition in Jammu and Kashmir.

In an even stronger response, India’s Interior Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted: “Pakistan is a terrorist state and should be identified and isolated as such”.

India has long accused Pakistan of arming and training militants along the disputed border. “Don’t rule out inside job to malign Azadi movement, by blaming Pakistan”.

Mr Parrikar, along with Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, rushed to Kashmir to take stock of the situation, while Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi will visit Srinagar on Monday. “The reason is that till the time it does not hurt Pakistan physically, they would not respect (rpt) respect our decency”, Jaswal, who was GOC-in-C of the Northern Command, said.

Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, the army’s director general of military operations, said that all four gunmen killed were “foreign terrorists”, and that initial investigations suggested that they belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group that has been active in Kashmir for more than 15 years.

More than 80 people, almost all anti-government protesters, have died in more than two months of violence. Pellet guns used by the police have caused more than 500 eye injuries; about 100 people have been permanently blinded.

Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan in its entirety, and most people in the Indian-controlled portion favor independence or a merger with Pakistan. Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has promised he will use a speech to the United Nations general assembly on Wednesday to “emphatically highlight” alleged human rights abuses against protesters by Indian authorities.

Advertisement

But right now, a diplomatic solution to the region’s nearly-70-year-old conflict seems as distant a prospect as ever.

Soldiers guard the army base which was attacked by militants in Uri west of Srinagar on Sunday. AP