DODA/URI, Kashmir: India wants friendly ties with neighboring countries but that would not come in the way of giving a “fitting reply to terrorism”, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi said yesterday.
“Our intentions to have friendly relations with our neighboring countries should not be misconstrued as our weakness,” Gandhi told a huge crowd at an election rally in Doda of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday afternoon.
Reiterating the resolve to fight terrorism with grit and determination, Gandhi said: “We have never succumbed to dangers of terrorism nor we ever will. We will give a fitting reply to terrorism.”
Gandhi, chairperson of India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was referring to the Nov. 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai in which 183 people were killed. Indian authorities have blamed it on elements based in Pakistan.
Elections to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly are on and three of the seven phases have been completed. More than 60 percent voter turnout has been reported so far, as people ignored boycott calls from separatists.
Meanwhile, two senior mainstream Kashmiri leaders, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Omar Abdullah, have stressed the necessity of close cooperation between India and Pakistan to fight the scourge of terror.
“Cooperation and not confrontation is the key to challenge the scourge of terror in the region,” former Indian home minister and chief minister, Mufti Sayeed, said while addressing poll meetings in central Kashmir Budgam district yesterday.
“Given the experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military action has not only proved inadequate in dealing with the thorn in your side, but has made the world more vulnerable to new threats.”
The Mufti said, “The leadership of India and Pakistan must, amid the prevailing trying circumstances, act with political sagacity and do not allow the disruptive elements to shatter the region’s peace and stability.”
Former union minister of state for external affairs and president of National Conference (NC), Omar Abdullah, said India and Pakistan needed to rise above mutual mistrust and work together against terrorism.
Addressing poll meetings in central Kashmir Chadoora and north Kashmir towns of Tangmarg and Sopore, Omar said, “India and Pakistan must work together to remove the air of suspicion and mistrust between the two countries.” He said India and Pakistan were “both affected by acts of terror and so should develop a joint mechanism to tackle the menace.”
“There are elements who want to destabilize India and Pakistan and create turmoil in the subcontinent which is not in the interest of both the countries,” Omar said adding “The countries should jointly identify and isolate such elements because either country being unstable is not good for the other.”
— With input from Mukhtar Ahmad
