PM Narendra Modi who flew into New Delhi early April 23 morning after curtailing his Saudi Arabia visit by a day in view of the Pahalgam terrorist strikes in J&K decided to get cracking as soon as he reached the capital. Security officials who were preparing to brief Modi on his arrival at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg were surprised, when they were asked to reach the Palam Air Force base by 6 am for the meeting at the airport itself. He took stock of the situation along with EAM Dr S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and other top brass of security agencies. Meanwhile as the world mourned the massacre of 28 innocent tourists, Pakistan and Turkey have drawn outrage by using the tragedy to rake up the Kashmir issue. Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara thanked Turkey for its “unwavering support” on Kashmir—just hours after the terror attack. The Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, has claimed responsibility for the massacre. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will meet once HM Shah reaches Delhi and FM Nirmala Sitharaman returns from the U.S. In a post on X, Modi said the attackers would not be spared. “Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice…they will not be spared! Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger,” said Modi. While the CCS could possibly discuss a range of options and authorise retaliatory strikes; timing of such a step would of course be strategised by our security forces. After all, if we recall Pulwama attack that claimed lives of 40 CRPF jawans in February 2019 was retaliated with Balakote airstrike a good 10 days later.
