Visitors banned from retreat ceremony Russia supports LoC raid, says Uri ‘terrorists’ came from Pak
NEW DELHI: RUSSIA WAS THE ONLY COUNTRY TO SAY IN PLAIN WORDS THAT THE ‘TERRORISTS’ WHO ATTACKED THE URI BASE CAME FROM PAKISTAN
A day after the stonethrowing incident from Pakistani side during the retreat ceremony, Indian authorities again banned the entry of visitors to the gallery at the Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post. Though 300 spectators were allowed to watch the ceremony on Sunday, there was a total restriction on Monday.
BSF officials claimed they did not stop spectators and just followed orders of the state government, which told them not to allow anyone into the gallery. BSF DIG RS Kataria said, “Nobody is allowed for retreat ceremony today because of orders from the civil administration.”
On the stone-throwing incident, the DIG said that a strong protest has been lodged with Pakistan during a Commandant level meeting of the BSF and Pakistani Rangers.
Russia on Monday came out in support of India’s “surgical strikes” across the line of control (LoC), saying every country has the right to defend itself, the first P-5 country to back New Delhi openly.
“Greatest human rights violations take place when terrorists attack military installations and attack peaceful civilians in India. We welcome the surgical strike. Every country has the right to defend itself,” Russian ambassador to India, Alexander M Kadakin, said.
Russia was the only country to say in plain words that the “terrorists” who attacked the Uri base came from Pakistan, Kadakin told CNN News18 in an interview, asking Islamabad to end cross-border terror.
In an early morning raid on September 29, Indian soldiers struck militants planning to infiltrate into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The lightning strikes were in response to an attack by suspected Pakistani militants on an army base in Uri that left 19 soldiers dead.
The other four permanent members of the UN security council — the US, the UK, China and France — have chosen not to mention the “surgical strikes”, which Pakistan says were nothing but cross-border firing. Russia is the first major world power to use the term “surgical strike”.
In the neighbourhood, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, too, backed India and were the first to join Delhi in opting out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit that Pakistan was to host in November.
Kadakin also tried to address India’s concerns over a RussiaPakistan military exercise, the first between the two countries. The war game was not being held in “Pakistan-occupied Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir”, he said. “India should not be concerned… because the theme of the exercise is anti-terror fighting.” The exercise was in India’s interest as “we teach Pakistani army not to use itself for terror attacks against India”, the envoy said.