Modi urges calm, vows action against Uri perpetrators
PM EXPRESSES CONFIDENCE IN THE ARMED FORCES’ CAPABILITY TO BATTLE TERRORISM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said there was panIndia fury after the Uri terror attack, in which 18 soldiers were killed, but urged people to exercise restraint and channel their energies in a constructive way to help the country progress.
Opening his monthly radio broadcast Mann ki Baat by condemning the “cowardly” cross-border terror strike, Modi vowed that its perpetrators would not be spared.
He, however, refrained from naming Pakistan even as the government has unambiguously said the four attackers who struck at the army base in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 had come from across the Line of Control (LoC) — the de facto border that divides the state between the two countries.
“Recently, we lost 18 bravehearts in a terror attack in Uri. I salute and pay my tributes to these martyrs,” the Prime Minister said.
“This cowardly act was enough to shake the nation. There is sorrow and deep resentment in the country. This is a loss not only for those who lost their sons, brothers and husbands. It is a loss for the entire nation. And that is why I reiterate today what I had said on the day of the attack: The culprits will be punished for sure,” he said. Modi expressed his confidence in the armed forces capability in battling terrorism.
“We have full confidence in the Indian Army and are proud of them. We, the politicians, have many occasions to speak and we do speak. But the army doesn’t speak. They speak through their bravery,” the Prime Minister said. The Uri assault has plunged the already frosty India-Pakistan ties to a new low amid apprehensions that it may even trigger an armed conflict between the two nuclear-powered neighbours.
Islamabad has denied the allegation that the attack originated from its soil even as New Delhi says it has incriminating evidence to prove that the four attackers, who were killed in the Uri gunfight, belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammad and had come from Pakistan.
Modi also referred to hardships faced by the Kashmiri people because of an ongoing unrest that has disrupted normal life in the valley for over two-and-a-half months. “Every [Kashmiri] parent wants schools and colleges to open as soon as possible . ... Economic activities should become normal. For the past few days, trade activities have begun to function normally.”