A high-level meeting of Ministers and top security and Intelligence officials, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday discussed all possible responses to teach a lesson to Pakistan in the wake of the Uri terror attack. The thrust of the contemplated measures include attempt to diplomatically isolate Pakistan at the international forum. Military options also came up for discussion at the two-hour-long meeting, after which the PM called on President Pranab Mukherjee.
However, sources privy to the deliberations said there will be no “knee-jerk” reaction “anytime soon”. Action will be taken only after proper planning, coordination, exploring all options and taking everyone concerned into confidence, sources said. They recalled that in the case of Mynamar last year, the Army carried out an operation along the border against NSCN-K militants involved in the killing of 18 soldiers in Manipur in June, 2015 only after a week.
Highly placed sources said that the security and intelligence officials appraised the meeting about the details of terror training camps of JeM and leT across the border. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, NSA Ajit Doval, Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag and other top officials attended the meeting.
India is also planning to hand over to Pakistan evidence of the four terrorists carrying Pakistani-marked weapons, food, energy drinks and GPS trackers.
Top brass of the Government is convinced that India has to launch a calibrated, multi-layered and strategic response and expose Pakistan in international forums like the UN, whose General Assembly is in session, official sources said.
As part of the plans, the Director General of Military Operations will hand over all the evidence linking Pakistan’s involvement in Uri attack to his Pakistani counterpart shortly. The Defence Minister and the Army chief, who visited Kashmir after the terror attack on Sunday, also apprised the Prime Minister about their observations, they said.
According to sources, the meeting also sought to bring united voice in the domestic politics and mooted for interaction or appraisal of senior Opposition leaders about the situation. “Here, we have a hostile Pakistani establishment. So any hasty action is completely ruled out,” a source said. Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh too appeared to echo Government’s thinking by saying that no action should be taken under the influence of emotions and anger.
“Having seen the Army closely, I feel, it needs to be analysed as to what happened there...It needs to be investigated how the incident took place and what were the lacuna...From the Army’s side, alertness is required. The Kashmir situation needs to be thought about. The action has to be taken without getting influenced by emotions, anger. It has to be taken coolly and with proper planning,” he said