India directly accused Pakistan of being behind Sunday’s (September 18) fidayeen attack on an army base near their disputed frontier that killed 17 troops in one of the most deadly attacks in Kashmir in a quarter-century-old insurgency.
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He didn’t name Pakistan, but Home Minister Rajnath Singh called India’s regional rival a “terrorist nation” which deserved to be isolated.
He said that on the contrary India was involved in terrorism in Pakistan and was trying to divert the world’s attention from Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to punish those who are responsible for the “despicable” and “cowardly” attack.
One group left for Poonch, second group attacked the Uri Army base around 5.30 AM and the third was untraced. Not just India, other powerful nations like USA and European nations are fighting against various terror groups in the recent past.
The militants broke into the base near the de facto border with Pakistan before dawn and lobbed grenades at tents and barracks housing soldiers, before opening fire with automatic weapons, the army said.
India and Pakistan – nuclear-armed rivals that have fought three wars over Kashmir since 1947 – have seen relations plummet to their lowest point in years.
“Despite the deployment of a large number of security personnel, the government has failed to stop the continuing infiltration of militants”, the party said in a statement.
India has long accused Pakistan of supporting “militant” attacks in its northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule only in part.
The Home Minister has postponed his scheduled visit to Russian Federation and the United States in the wake of the attack in Uri and the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. “India immediately puts blame on Pakistan without doing any investigation. We reject this”, Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria told a Western news agency.Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said in Delhi that some articles recovered from the slain terrorists had “Pakistan markings”.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said India was facing the results of its atrocities in held Kashmir.
What made Sunday’s attack different from other attacks in the region was that instead of storming into the camp, the rebels quietly entered the base and later launched their attack, said a senior army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
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Thousands of angry demonstrators defied a curfew yesterday in Indian Kashmir to attend the funeral of a schoolboy whose body had been found riddled with pellets, sparking clashes with security forces across the restive region.
