Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 28: In an indirect attack on Centre and State Governments over today’s terror attack, former Union Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley wanted to know: “how long will this go on’’?
He tweeted that there had been several attacks in this mode by terrorists coming from across the border.
“As elections near, I won’t be surprised if the number of these attacks increase. This established that Pakistani soil continued to be used for planning and executing these attacks on India. Pakistan has to realize that if it wants to normalise relations with India, these attacks have to stop,’’ Mr Jaitley, the BJP candidate for Lok Sabha election from Amritsar, said.
PTI adds from Amritsar: Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley condemned today’s terror attacks in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, and expressed apprehensions that terrorists might create disturbances ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
“It is (the Kathua incident) a replica of earlier attacks in the same region. So, is the level of alertness little lowered?” he asked at a press conference in Amritsar.
“It is quite possible that they may want to create disturbances on election eve,” Jaitley said and referred to the recent arrest of two Pakistani-origin terrorists from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
He said the pattern of attack is similar. “The pattern each time is similar. They come from across the border, wear Army uniform, hijack civilian vehicle, kill some civilians and then attack Army camp… What is the reason?” he asked.
He said since it is a replica of the earlier incident, therefore “the level of alertness has to be a little higher”.
Jaitley said Pakistan would have to understand that if its territory is used for repeated terror attacks against India then there “will be lot of difficulties in normalisation of bilateral relations”.
Asked if “hot pursuit” was needed to deal with such incidents, Jaitley said, “It is an option at a given stage. Hot pursuit is never option one… And it is to be decided by strategic thinkers and security forces.”
Follow our WhatsApp channel