The prime minister spoke for the first time on the April 22 terror attack, at a rally in Madhubani, Bihar, where he inaugurated and laid foundation stones for a host of projects on National Panchayat Day. He began his speech with a request to all present to observe a few moments of silence as a tribute to the 28 people killed by terrorists and pray for their souls.
“Friends, today from the soil of Bihar, I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the earth. India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished. Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done. The entire nation is firm in this resolve. Everyone who believes in humanity is with us,” Modi said.
While the rest of his speech was in Hindi, he chose to speak the above lines in English to send across a message to the world leaders of India’s anger and intent.
He thanked the heads of various countries who have stood by India at this juncture.
Modi chose to make these remarks in Bihar where Assembly elections are due in October. One of those killed at Pahalgam was Manish Ranjan, an IB official hailing from Bihar.Modi was equally scathing in Hindi on the killing of innocent tourists at Pahalgam.“The nation is in agony over the cruelty with which terrorists killed innocent countrymen on April 22 at Pahalgam in J&K. Every citizen is in sorrow. The whole country is standing by the affected families. The government is making every effort to ensure speedy recovery of the injured. In this terror attack, somebody lost a son, a brother, or a life-partner. Among them, somebody spoke Bangla, Kannada or Marathi. Somebody was Oriya, somebody Gujarati, somebody a son of Bihar. From Kargil to Kanyakumari, our pain and outrage is the same over the death of all of them,” Modi said.
He said this was not a mere attack on some tourists and will not be taken lightly.
“This attack was not just on unarmed tourists. The enemies of this country have committed the audacity of attacking the soul of India. I want to say in very clear words that those terrorists who perpetrated this attack, and those who hatched this conspiracy, will get punishment that will be beyond their imagination. Punishment will definitely be given. The time has come to put to end the remnants of the base of terrorists,” the prime minister said.
Echoing the anger of the people over this heinous act, Modi underlined that the will-power of 140 crore Indians will break the back of the sponsors of terrorism.
Modi’s words were reminiscent of the tough stance India has taken in the recent past. In 2016, India had launched a surgical strike in retaliation to the deadly attack at an Indian army camp in Uri in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed. In 2019, Modi had ordered the Balakot air strike on Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
After the Pahalgam attack, India has already initiated tough measures, including putting the Indus Waters Treaty on hold, shutting down the Attari border, expelling Pakistan’s defence advisers based in Delhi, and cutting down the strength of Pakistan high commission from the already curtailed 55 to 30.
