New Delhi: While the Indian parliament and schools mourned the 141 dead in school massacre by Taliban in Pakistan, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday these events were a “clarion call” to join hands to defeat terrorism, in which India was willing to play its role.
The morning after 132 schoolchildren and 9 others were gunned and burned down in their school in Peshawar, both houses of parliament held a two-minute mourning in a mark of solidarity.
Lok sabha also passed a resolution expressed outrage, shock and sorrow on the attack, and extended condolences to the “Parliament, Government, people of Pakistan, the bereaved families and the injured”.
The national security advisor Ajit Kumar Doval visited the Pakistan high commission to write in the condolence book opened for visitors, as Pakistan marked three days of official mourning.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday night, where he had expressed sympathy and horror at the attack and offered all assistance. He had also called upon Sharif to join hands witth India to defeat terrorism. Modi had also appealed to schools across India to hold prayers for the dead during morning assembly.
Later in the lower house, Sushma Swaraj said that she was supposed to speak on the Sydney seige, but the Peshawar attack scale compelled her to make a statement.
“The events of the last two days were on two different continents; in different hemispheres; on our two opposite flanks. While seemingly disparate, both are manifestations of the darkening shadow of terrorism,” she said.
The minister said that both events “taken together, are a clarion call for all those who believe in humanity to join hands to decisively and comprehensively defeat terrorism”.
“On our part, India stands ready to play our role in this global endeavour,” she added.
Describing the school attack as “one of the most horrific killing in recent times”, Swaraj noted, “The enormity of this crime; the cowardly nature of the massacre; the barbaric brutality of the killing of 132 innocent school children and 9 others, yesterday, has evoked revulsion all around”.
About the Sydney seige, Swaraj said that among the 17 hostages were Pushpendu Ghosh, an Indian national and Vishwakantha Ankireddy, an Australian of Indian origin, both Infosys employees working on Westpac bank located near Lindt café.
“We provided valuable, timely and actionable inputs to establish their identity and monitor their welfare. I myself spoke to the wife of Ankireddy twice during the day to assure her of all Government support for the security and well-being of her husband. We were also in constant contact with Infosys offices in Australia and India,” she said.
The minister noted that PM was constantly monitoring the situation.
“The incident in Sydney is a grim reminder to governments, societies and individuals of the threat held out by terrorism anywhere in the world. We have ourselves been victims of terrorist acts against this Parliament, our temple of democracy, in the year 2001. It is my Government’s resolve to fight all forces of terror so that we can all live and prosper in a peaceful and harmonious society,” she added.
