All-party meet on Pulwama: Opposition demands meeting with PM

New Delhi :  Opposition parties on Saturday demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for consultations on the Pulwama terror attack.

They made this demand at the all-party meeting that was convened by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the aftermath of the horrific attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir that left 49 paramilitary troopers dead till Friday.

“We asked Home Minister to request the Prime Minister to hold a consultation meeting with the presidents of all national and regional parties and hold discussions with them,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after the meeting.

Azad said Congress has extended its full support to the government to end terror. “We have disagreements with the government and there will be; but we have decided to stand with the government for the sake of country, for its safety and unity, for the safety of people and security forces,” he said.

“We are with the Army, the BSF, the CRPF, the J&K Police to end the terror.”

He said it was for the first time such a large number of security personnel had died in non-war situation since 1947.

“The nation is sad, angry. People and politicians irrespective of their religion, region, caste are mourning,” Azad said. “Be it Kashmir or any part of the country, Congress will extend full cooperation to the government to deal with the militancy.”

Other parties also supported the demand in the meeting, he added.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja said such a meeting should be convened to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the efforts the government was likely to take to maintain peace and normalcy in the state.

“All parties expressed condemnation of the attack and reiterated that they were firmly behind the security forces at this challenging moment,” Raja said after the all-party meeting.

The political parties also advised against any instigations against the Muslim community, he added.

Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, Trinamool Congress’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, Republican Party of India chief and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, Congress’s Anand Sharma, Telugu Desam Party’s Ram Mohan Naidu were among the leaders present at the meeting.

The all-party meeting on Saturday also passed a resolution condemning the February 14 Pulwama attack that has till now claimed the lives of 49 CRPF troopers.

In the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted in 1989, a suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Pulwama district, killing at least 40 troopers on the spot. The toll rose to 49 on Friday as several injured succumbed.

The attack has left the security establishment stunned as it created the biggest casualty of security personnel in a single day in peace time.

Published on: Feb 16, 2019 at 15:52 IST

IANS