INDIA UNITES IN MOURNING

PM, leaders pay respects as parties cut across political divisions Pak MFN status revoked; India to isolate neighbour diplomatically Military retaliation on the table: covert ground ops to air strikes

DELHI/SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi put Pakistan on notice on Friday to brace for a strong response to the terrorist strike that left at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers dead in Kashmir — an attack that escalated tensions between the two neighbours and united India in grief and anger.

Showing unity of purpose, Congress president Rahul Gandhi offered his party’s support to Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and security forces in the measures they take in the aftermath of Thursday’s attack on the Jammu-Srinagar highway by a suicide car bomber who belonged to the Pakistanbacked Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group.

“If our neighbour, which has been isolated in the world, thinks that by carrying out such attacks, hatching such conspiracies, it would be successful in bringing instability in India, it is a big mistake on its part,” Modi said after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

“A strong reply will be given to this attack,” Modi’s said after flagging off India’s fastest train, Vande Bharat Express, on its maiden journey from New Delhi to Varanasi in a ceremony in which two minutes of silence was observed in honour of the CRPF troopers.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a CRPF truck, part of a convoy of 78 vehicles, in the Avantipora area of Pulwama district. Initial reports said 44 men were feared to have been killed. On Thursday, the CRPF confirmed 40 deaths, making it the deadliest attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s three-decade-long insurgency.

“The aim of terrorism is to divide the country, no one can divide this country and the entire Opposition stands united with the security forces and the government,” Gandhi said at a press conference in Delhi.

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If our neighbour… thinks that by carrying out such attacks, hatching such conspiracies, it would be successful in bringing instability in India, it is a big mistake... A strong reply will be given to this attack. NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister ›

The aim of terrorism is to divide the country. No one can divide this country and the entire Opposition stands united with the security forces and the government.

RAHUL GANDHI, Congress president

SAMEER SEHGAL/HT Sarabjit Kaur (left) holding a picture of her husband, Sukhjinder Singh, at her home in Tarn Taran on Friday.

HT PHOTO Himachal food & civil supplies minister Kishan Kapoor (right) and Jawali MLA Arjun Singh consoling Tilak Raj’s father.

HT PHOTO Maninder Singh’s father, Satpal Attari, got the information about the death of his son on Thursday midnight.