United front...

Although the party has many disagreements with the government, for the sake of “our country, security of all, we will stand with the government to end terror. The government has our support,” Azad said.

A suicide bomber driving a car laden with explosives rammed a bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers on the Jammu-srinagar highway on Thursday afternoon, killing 40 men of the paramilitary force in the worst terrorist attack in the three decades of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistanbased Jaish-e-mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Modi government has vowed retaliation for the attack. In September 2016, an attack on the army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control, that left 19 soldiers dead, was the spark for surgical strikes by the Indian Army against terrorist training camps across the de facto border.

At Saturday’s meeting, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut cited the example of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s decisive action that led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 out of what was East Pakistan, according to persons aware of the development, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Raut later told reporters that his party had decided to support the government to teach a lesson to Pakistan. “We have told them [central government] that this resolution and all is good, but now they should take some action,” he said. The 2016 surgical strikes had not acted as a deterrent and it was time for stronger action, Raut said.

Akali Dal’s Prem Singh Chandumajra said the government must ensure that the Muslim community was not attacked in the aftermath of the terror attack. He cited the example of the 1984 riots in which Sikhs across the country were attacked by mobs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah expressed concern over communal clashes in Jammu and isolated reports of Kashmiri students outside the state being harassed. He also criticised the government’s move to withdraw security for political leaders in Kashmir.

His views were supported by the Communist Party of India’s D Raja, who said the Pulwama attack should not be used for targeting Muslims and Kashmiri students.

“It’s a political problem. It needs to be solved through a political process, which means engagement with all stakeholders. We are a mature nation and we should deal with this with maturity,” he said.

On the absence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the meeting, spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir said the party had received the invitation only late Friday, as a result of which none of its leaders could attend it. He accused the NDA government of “deliberately” sending the invitation late to ensure the PDP’S absence. “They [government] should have directly invited our party president [Mehbooba Mufti]. Perhaps they did it to ensure that we don’t participate. Our policies clearly differ with those of the BJP. We are for reconciliation and may be they don’t like our stand,” he said.

Home minister Rajnath Singh said the government was determined to take its fight against terrorism to the logical conclusion. “The sacrifices of security personnel will not go in vain. The people of Jammu and Kashmir want peace and are with us, but there are some elements supporting Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups,” he said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

He also assured Abdullah that all steps would be taken to ensure the safety of Kashmiri students.

Janata Dal (United) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) representatives did not attend the meeting. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) representative Pinkai Misra is learnt to have said his party would support the security forces and any action they take, but the government should make sure that such attacks do not recur.

On the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) suggestion, the wording of resolution was changed from “….resolve to stand with our security forces and efforts of the Central and State Governments…” to “Today we stand united in solidarity with our security forces...”

An additional director general of CRPF gave a brief presentation on the attack to the parliamentarians, who included Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, TMC’S Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’ Brien, Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh, Telugu Desam Party’s Ram Mohan Naidu, Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s Jitender Reddy, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s A Navaneethakrishnan, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, and Union minister for parliamentary affairs Narendra Singh Tomar. Indian Railways.

Northern Railway’s chief public relations officer Deepak Kumar had said in the morning that the breakdown “was a case of skidding wheels after the train ran over cattle.”

S Mani, former general manager of the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, where the train was built, said he was satisfied with the overall performance of the train during its inaugural run and added that teething troubles were bound to occur. He called it a “unique product without any foreign intervention or transfer of technology.”

Railway minister Piyush Goyal has set a target of 130 more such trains.the second will be rolled out in March and in 2019-20, the railways aims to manufacture 10 such trains.

The train has rotating seats, which can be aligned in the direction of travel in the executive class. It has toilets with a biovacuum system, modular luggage racks with a glass bottom and sliding doors in coaches. The trains that will be manufactured in future will be an improved version of this train.

(With inputs from agencies)