Modi celebrates Diwali with soldiers along LoC
SRINAGAR On the occasion of Diwali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kashmir on Thursday to be with soldiers on the Line of Control.
Modi celebrated the festival with the troops in Gurez sector of Bandipora district, officials said.
The PM was received by the Army chief Bipin Rawat, who had arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday to review the security situation.
Rawat along with the Northern Command chief, lieutenant general Devraj Anbu, and Chinar Corps commander, lieutenant general JS Sandhu, accompanied the Prime Minister to Gurez.
Modi reached the Army Brigade Headquarters near the Line of Control (LoC) in the morning where he spent some time with the soldiers.
The Prime Minister offered sweets and exchanged greetings with the army and the Border Security Force (BSF) jawans.
Addressing the jawans, the Prime Minister said that like everyone else, he too wishes to spend Diwali with his family. Therefore, he said he had come among the jawans of the Armed Forces, whom he considers to be "his family".
“Spending time with our Forces gives me new energy. We exchanged sweets and interacted. Happy to know the jawans practice yoga regularly,” Modi tweeted.He appreciated their “penance and sacrifice” among harsh conditions.
This is for the fourth time that Modi has spent Diwali with soldiers after becoming Prime Minister and second time that he has flown to Kashmir during the festival. In 2014, Modi had visited Siachen in Ladakh in the aftermath of a devastating flood in the Kashmir valley.
Modi’s visit also comes amid the continuous offensive by security forces against militants after violent street protests and attacks on security personnel in the border state. Security forces have been able to track and kill a number of militant commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba for the past few months.
The situation on border in the state is also not calm and there have been a number of confrontations between Indian and Pakistani troops on the LoC particularly in the state.
MODI SAID HE HAD COME AMONG THE ARMY JAWANS BECAUSE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, HE TOO WISHES TO CELEBRATE DIWALI WITH HIS FAMILY