Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the crowd in Rajasthan’s Tonk on Saturday. (Twitter/@BJP4India)Denouncing the attacks on Kashmiris in the wake of Pulwama terror attack last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that “such incidents should not happen in this country” and insisted that the nation’s fight is against terrorism and against those who are enemies of humanity and not against Kashmir or Kashmiris.
“Aur mai dekh raha hu, ki in dino social media par jaise veer ras ki baadh ayi hai. Lekin bhaiyo aur beheno, hamari ladai, atankbad ke khilaf hai, manavta ke dushmano ke khilaf hai, hamari ladai, Kashmir ke liye hai, kahsmir ke khilaf nahi hai, kashmirion ke khilaf nahi hai. (I am seeing that these days, social media is flooded with veer ras. But brothers and sisters, our fight is against terrorism, against the enemies of humanity. Our fight is for Kashmir, not against it, not against Kashmiris),” said Modi while addressing a rally at Tonk district in Rajasthan. Follow LIVE UPDATES here.
“Pichle dino, kahan kya hua, ghatna choti thi ki badi thi, kashmiri baccho ke sath Hindustan ke kisi kone me, kya hua kya nahi hua, mudda ye nahi hai. Is desh me aisa hona nahi chahiye. (In the last few days, what happened where, whether it was a small or big incident, with Kashmiri students in any corner of Hindustan, what happened or not, this is not the issue… Such incidents shouldn’t happen in this country),” the Prime Minister added.
Our fight is against terrorism.
Our fight is against those who sponsor terrorism.
Our fight is for Kashmir, not against Kashmiris.
We want our sisters and brothers of Kashmir to be rid of terrorism: PM @narendramodi
— narendramodi_in (@narendramodi_in) February 23, 2019
PM Modi broke his silence on the issue a day after the Supreme Court directed the chief secretaries and police chiefs of all states and Union Territories to take “prompt action” to prevent incidents of “assault, threat, social boycott and such other egregious acts” against Kashmiris, including students, and other minorities.
Expressing his condolences to the families of the terror attack, the prime minister said, “Not just India, the entire world is with you.”
“I am proud of our jawans, who within 100 hours, sent the perpetrators of the attack on their comrades, to the place where they belong,” PM Modi said, referring to reports which said that the mastermind of the attack was killed by security forces during an encounter in the district a few days later.
He also targetted the Congress for its attack on the present dispensation over Pulwama terror attack. “It is sad to see a few people speaking in the language of Pakistan while residing in India. These are the same people who will visit Pakistan and request them to do anything to overthrow the Modi government,” he said. “These are the same people who failed to take any concrete steps to curb terrorism after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.”
Modi was referring to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks that Modi needs to be removed if talks between India and Pakistan have to resume.
The prime minister also said that the time has come to see whether his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan stands by his word to fight against poverty and illiteracy. “When Pakistan got a new Prime Minister, I had congratulated him. I told him that we should together fight against poverty and illiteracy. He said he was the son of a Pathan and will stand by his words. Today, it is time to test if he will stand by his words,” he said.
Minutes after his speech, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed hope that the attack on Kashmiri students will now stop. Taking to Twitter, the National Conference leader said, “It’s been more than a week since the terrible attack in Pulwama and more than a week that Kashmiris have been bearing the brunt of the public anger. Perhaps finally after PM Modi has spoken, these forces targeting Kashmiris will stop in their tracks.”
On Friday, the apex court had issued notices to the Centre and 10 states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra — and sought their reply. These are the states that have reported incidents of threat and violence against Kashmiris in the last one week.
(With inputs from ENS)
