India has clearly told Pakistan that action against terrorism will be taken not only on this side of the border but also on their side if needed, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. “People used to say that if Article 370 is abolished, then the entire Kashmir will burn…All in all, Jammu and Kashmir is peaceful except for a few incidents,” he said at an event here.
Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region have witnessed a rise in infiltration attempts since June this year, resulting in the killing of nine terrorists in separate encounters.
The Centre had on August 5, 2019 abolished Article 370 of the Constitution that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh said, “It is true that our enemy forces are fidgety. I can say with surety that terrorists’ confidence has been broken in Kashmir Valley.”
Since October 11, the Indian Army is conducting a massive search operation to track down hiding terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.
Pakistan was not able to gather any support on the topic of Kashmir even after trying a lot, the minister said.
“Modiji has redesigned and redefined India’s attitude against terrorism. Remember, what a soft attitude was maintained against terrorists during earlier governments,” Singh told the gathering.
If there were terrorist incidents, there was talk of giving “safe passage” to them, there used to be talk of playing or not playing matches against Pakistan, he said.
“Now the situation has changed. Our government has said clearly that terrorism and talks cannot go hand in hand. For the last few years, we have stopped having any talks with Pakistan,” the minister mentioned.
“Now we don’t talk about playing or not playing (cricket) matches. Instead, we have stated it clearly that action against terrorism will be taken — on this side of the border as well as on the other side of the border if needed,” he added.