Jammu: India is getting more powerful and can hit terror networks on this side of the border as well as across it if the need arises, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday, asserting that the world has understood the meaning of zero tolerance for terrorism through the country’s actions.
“Pulwama and Uri were both unfortunate incidents… The prime minister took just 10 minutes to take a decision (on carrying out surgical strikes) which shows his strong willpower. Our forces not only neutralised the terrorists on this side but also went across the border to finish them off,” Singh said.
Addressing a national security conclave held at the University of Jammu, the minister stressed that the world, including Muslim countries, is united against terrorism. He said cash-strapped Pakistan would achieve nothing by “parroting Kashmir” and should instead put its house in order.
In his over 40-minute address, the minister asserted that India has taken major action against terrorism under the Modi government and referred to the surgical strikes carried out across the Line of Control (LoC) in 2016 and the Balakot air strike in 2019.
“Bharat ab pehle jaisa Bharat nahi raha. Bharat takatwar banta jaa raha hai. Zaroorat padi to Bharat seema ke iss par bhi maar sakta hai aur zaroorat paditoh uss paar bhi jaa sakta hai (India is not the same as it used to be. It is getting more powerful. If needed, India can hit on this side of the border and can go across the border as well,” the defence minister said.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government started effective action against terrorism and, for the first time, not only the country but also the world came to know the meaning of zero tolerance against terrorism, he said amid applause from the audience.
Terrorists attacked an army camp in the border town of Uri in September 2016, resulting in the death of 19 soldiers. A fortnight later, the Indian Army carried out a surgical strike across the border and destroyed launch pads for Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.
In February 2019, forty CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack on their convoy by terrorists in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.
Twelve days after the terror attack, the Indian Air Force (IAF) destroyed the terrorist camp in Balakote in Pakistan.
The defence minister said Jammu and Kashmir has suffered the brunt of terrorism for a long. “People here know how the poison of terrorism hollows out the society.”
Targeting the previous UPA government, he said it failed to take strict action against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism despite nefarious attempts by Pakistan to bleed the country that left thousands of innocents dead.
PTI