Capt Amarinder suggests hot pursuit against terror; warns Pak army, ISI of dangerous repercussions

DEENA NAGAR (GURDASPUR) : Former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh today suggested that government of India must seriously consider the policy of hot pursuit against the terrorists and their patrons across the border even if it leads to escalation in hostilities. Capt Amarinder was here to visit the incident site and the families of the victims of yesterday’s terror attack. He visited the bereaved families to express his condolences. He also visited the injured persons and police personnel in the hospitals and assured them all support. He attended the cremation of two police personnel also.
He also went to Kapurthala to meet the family members of the SP Baljeet Singh who was martyred during yesterday’s operations against the terrorists. “We can’t keep on watching our innocent getting killed by the fidayeen who come from across the border…there has to be an end to it and there is a limit to our patience”, he told reporters in an informal conversation outside the Police Station, which was the target of Monday’s attack. Referring to the Pakistan army chief Raheel Sharif’s statement that Pakistan was not Myanmar, after Indian army smashed militant hideouts there, Capt Amarinder retorted, “let me tell the General (Sharif) that India is not Myanmar either, and you should be knowing it too well from your experiences with repeated defeats in which your close relatives like uncle and brother fought”.He reminded Pakistani army chief that he was from a military family with his brother Shabir Sharif getting killed in 1971 and his maternal uncle Raja Aziz Bhatti getting killed in 1965. He said, both of them got Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military award there. “We recognise those acts of valour but what you are doing now is a sheer act of cowardice”, he remarked while asking, “what valour is there in getting roadside shopkeepers and unarmed policemen killed?”
Asked whether Indian Prime Minister should continue to talk to his Pakistani counterpart, Capt Amarinder observed that the Pakistani Prime Minister had hardly any say or influence over army and ISI, which run the show there. He pointed out, while Prime Minister Vajpayee was taking round of Lahore in a bus with Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani military was infiltrating into Kargil and preparing for war against India. He said, while talks cannot be stopped but India has to be alert and assertive that it cannot keep on tolerating terror for long.When told that Pakistan always claimed that these were ‘non state actors’, the former Chief Minister said, “there is no non-state actor in Pakistan as everything was under the direct control of the army and ISI”.