National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday said India has neither forgotten nor will forget the Pulwama terror attack and the country's leadership is "capable and courageous" to formulate effective responses to such acts.
While speaking at a CRPF function in Gurgaon, the NSA also asked the paramilitary force to "constantly" enhance their professionalism, training, physical capabilities and quick response skills.
"What should we do? What should be our way, our aim and our response and time to respond? The country's leadership is both capable and courageous to (do) that," Doval said.
"The country will tackle all such challenges and we have the courage to do this," he said while addressing 80th raising day celebrations at the Group Centre of the CRPF Gurgaon.
Doval began his 16-minute speech by paying tributes to the 40 personnel who were killed when a suicide bomber of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) collided his explosives-laden vehicle with a bus of the paramilitary convoy on February 14.
Doval is considered to be the architect of the air strike on a JeM camp in Balakot in Pakistan. The strike was carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in retaliation to the Pulwama terror incident, which was one of the worst attack on security personnel in Kashmir in the three decades of Islamist terrorism in the State.
The Pulwama attack was a "very sad incident", Doval said, adding that the country will always be indebted to the martyrs and their families.
He asked CRPF to "not look back" as they have a golden future ahead.
"If your morale is high, then the country's future is safe," Doval, a former chief of Intelligence Bureau, said.
World history is replete with examples when weak internal security mechanisms led to loss of independence, constitutional crises and collapse of Governments, he said.
Doval said after World War II, out of the 37 nations that faced constitutional crisis, 28 suffered it because of internal security problems.
As the lead internal security force of the country, the CRPF has an important role and onerous responsibility in ensuring peace, and law and order, he added.