DINANAGAR: Senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh today suggested to the Centre to consider the policy of hot pursuit of terrorists and their patrons across the border in the wake of the Gurdaspur terror attack.
The Central government should "seriously consider the policy even if it leads to escalation in hostilities", said Singh, who today visited the site of yesterday's attack and the families of those killed in it. He meet bereaved families and expressed his deep sorrow over their loss. Singh also assured support to the injured police personnel and civilians undergoing treatment at various hospitals.
The Congress leader attended the last rites of two police personnel who were yesterday killed in the attack and visited the family of slain police officer Baljeet Singh in Kapurthala. "We can't keep on watching our innocent getting killed by fidayeens from across the border... there has to be an end to it, there is a limit to our patience," he told reporters outside the police station, which was stormed by the terrorists yesterday.
Asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should continue to engage Pakistan diplomatically, he said "Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) hardly has any say or influence over army and ISI, which run the show there." He recalled "while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was taking a round of Lahore in a bus with Sharif, the Pakistani military was infiltrating into Kargil and preparing for a war against India."
He said "while talks with Pakistan cannot be stopped, India needs to be alert and assertive. It can't keep on tolerating terror for long." Referring to Pakistan Army chief Raheel Sharif's statement that "Pakistan isn't Myanmar", warning India against strikes along the lines of the Indian army's operation in Myanmar, he said, "Let me tell the General (Sharif) that India is not Myanmar either. "You should be knowing it too well from your experiences with repeated defeats."
"There is no non-state actor in Pakistan as everything is under the direct control of army and ISI," he added.