New Delhi: A day after 18 soldiers were killed in restive Kashmir in an attack, India blamed on Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday huddled with the top military brass to devise a response, amidst growing war hysteria ratcheted up by his rightwing party and media channels.
However according to reports Prime Minister and his key cabinet colleagues received counsel against rash military action, reports quoting well placed sources said.
After a two-hour first full-scale meeting Prime Minister and some of his top ministers decided against any “knee-jerk reaction” and, instead, backed moves to present evidence of Pakistan’s “complicity” at global fora.
Top military commanders warned that Pakistan’s army had raised its defensive posture along the Line of Control (LoC) and senior government figures pushed back against calls from their ranks for immediate military strikes against Pakistan, Indian Express reported.
The meeting was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval besides top military brass.
Despite the threats of “jaw for a tooth” rhetoric from his party colleagues like Ram Madhav, the choices before the Modi government are not easy, analysts told Kashmir Observer.
If Modi does not respond in some aggressive way, his image as a strong leader is at risk.
Jingoistic media has gone ballistic crying for revenge. Former generals want military retaliation, even a limited strike, maybe like two hot pursuits by the Indian Army’s special forces across the Myanmar border. Few saner voices are trying to bring home the point that Pakistan is not Myanmar, they said.
Nothing gives the international community a bigger fright than the prospect of war between two nuclear armed nations, they insist.
Former army chief and now junior foreign minister VK Singh trying to cool tempers said: “The action has to be taken without getting influenced by emotions, anger. It has to be taken coolly and with proper planning,”
Earlier the head of military operations of the Indian army, Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, said India had the desired capability to respond.
“We reserve the right to respond to any act of the adversary at a time and place of our own choosing,” Singh told reporters, indicating there was no likelyhood of any imminent military response.
Officials said a group of four heavily armed militants attacked a battalion centre close to the Army’s 12 Infantry Brigade headquarters on the peripheries of Uri town, 102-km northwest of capital Srinagar, around 3 am.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack, an allegation which Pakistan angrily refuted. Pakistan claimed that India's charges were "totally baseless and irresponsible."
Pakistan claimed that India had a 'history of blaming Pakistan' after every terror attack. Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state. Military experts have called for India to keep open the military solution to Pakistani aggression across the border, after the Uri attack.
As India moved to diplomatically isolate Pakistan as part of retaliation to Uri attack the plan appeared set to run into a wall of resistance from a defiant Islamabad.
Past attempts by India in this direction have been unsuccessful, because of opposition from China, among others.
China said on Monday it was “shocked” by the attack on the Uri base. It also expressed concern over the escalation of violence in Kashmir. France also referred to “the disputes in the region of Kashmir”.
India bristles at any mention by other countries of its territorial dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.
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