Asserting that India is determined to bring the perpetrators of the Uri attack to justice, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that those behind the attack will not go unpunished will not remain a mere statement and “we are serious about it.”
On lapses leading to the attack on the Army brigade, Parrikar said, “Obviously something must have been wrong...I’ll ensure it doesn’t go wrong again.”
Meanwhile Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to his office in South Block and handed him a list of things recovered from the terrorists killed in the operation in Uri and Poonch. All these things have a clear evidence of the involvement of Pakistani citizens. While seeking a response from Islamabad, Jaishankar in a tough message also told Basit, “We demand Pakistan lives up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India”.
Reacting for the first time since the incident, Parrikar while asserting that India meant business, brushed aside reports about Pakistan’s threat of use of tactical nukes.
“The person, who has strength, usually makes less noise. Empty vessels make more noise,” he said, adding India is a responsible country. “But that does not mean I will sleep over this kind of terrorism being pushed from across. How I do it is entirely for the Government under the Prime Minister to decide,” Parrikar said. He had visited Srinagar on Sunday to take stock of the situation after the Uri attack.
Responding to questions about India’s response in the aftermath of the Uri attack, he said on the sidelines of a seminar here, “We take proper reading of everything and I don’t think the Prime Minister’s initial words that ‘those responsible will be punished’, will go as a mere statement. How to punish, that is for us to work out. We are quite serious about it.”
On lapses leading to the attack on the camp in the wee hours of Sunday, Parrikar admitted something must have been wrong. “I will not go into the details of it. Obviously it is a very sensitive matter,” he said. Assuring that measures were on to plug the loopholes he said, “When something goes wrong, while you try to correct it, you should also ensure that it does not happen again. We will definitely find out what went wrong and also take steps to ensure it does not go wrong again. The country needs to ensure that repetition of wrong does not repeat again and again.”