States on high alert fearing terror attacks

The union Home Ministry on Friday issued a countrywide alert, asking state governments to exercise extra vigil.

The alert was issued after an assessment by intelligence agencies, that Pakistan based terror outfits might carry out attacks in in India during the festive season, which started on Friday, as retaliation against Indian Army’s surgical strikes on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. The advisory asked all states to deploy additional forces in sensitive areas. Urban centres, and states bordering Pakistan, were asked to be careful.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the security situation in border areas. He also said that India was making efforts to ensure the return of the 37 Rashtriya Rifle soldier who had crossed the LoC inadvertently on Thursday. In Pakistan, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, warned India of a “befitting response”. “We will tell you what is a real surgical strike...and you will get the deserved response soon,” Saeed said in a public address in Faisalabad.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said at a meeting of the federal cabinet that Islamabad was ready to counter any external threat. However, the public rally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan on Sunday near Sharif’s residence dominated the public discourse.

In New Delhi, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will hold first of its series of seminars to highlight Pakistan’s human rights violations in Balochistan on Saturday. “It will be addressed by eminent Baloch freedom activists and representatives of Baloch Republican Party and Free Baloch Movement,” RSS spokesperson Rajiv Tuli said. Meanwhile, the Indian Army rejected reports that any of its men were killed in the surgical strikes. It also termed the images that Pakistan media outlets had put forth in the public domain as “morphed”.

Army said that only one soldier suffered injuries during Thursday’s surgical strikes. As for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in Islamabad, another member state Sri Lanka said that the environment wasn’t conducive to go ahead with the Summit. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan have already pulled out of the Summit that was scheduled to be held on first half of November.

In further support for India, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Shaida Abdali termed the strikes as an act of self-defence by India and said time has come to take “tough” and “risky” decisions to deal with the menace of terrorism. The Russian foreign ministry in a statement called upon India and Pakistan to not allow any escalation. It called upon Pakistan to take effective steps in order to stop the activities of terrorist groups in its territory.