New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting with the top defence establishment, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and the chiefs of the three services.
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan was also part of the meeting, which was held amid India weighing its options for countermeasures following the Pahalgam terror attack, which left at least 26 civilians, mostly tourists, dead.
Modi has vowed to pursue the terrorists behind the attack and their patrons, a clear reference to Pakistan which has a history of sponsoring terror strikes in India, to the “ends of the earth” and inflict the harshest punishment on them “beyond their imagination”.
Terrorists had gunned down tourists, who were from different parts of the country, in the popular destination of Pahalgam in Kashmir exactly a week ago on April 22.
This most brutal attack on civilians in a long period in the region has sparked a wave of outrage across the country and a demand for retaliatory action against the perpetrators and their handlers.
The prime minister’s tough assertions, coupled with his government’s avowed muscular stand on the issues of national security, have heightened expectations of a stringent counteraction from India.
He apparently gave a free hand to three chiefs of the army, navy, and air force, along with the CDS, to take whatever action they chose to fix the time and targets, to ensure Pakistan gets the pain that they shall not recover for the time to come.
In the past, the Modi government carried out surgical strikes inside Pakistan after the terror attack on army soldiers in Uri in 2016 and the Balakot air strike after the killings of CRPF personnel in Pulwama.
Following the terror strike in Pahalgam, India has taken a series of measures targeting Pakistan, including putting in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty with the neighbouring country.
Earlier in the day, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan had chaired a high-level meeting which was attended by chiefs of three paramilitary forces and senior officers of two other security organisations, sources said. There was no official word on its agenda.
