By Brajendra Nath Singh
Kozhikode, Kerala–In his fiercest attack on Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the sacrifices of 18 soldiers killed in the Uri terror attack will not go in vain and India will totally isolate Pakistan in the international arena for “exporting terror”.
In his first public speech post the September 18 Uri attack, Modi termed Pakistan as the one country in Asia which is conspiring to spill “blood” across the continent and exporting terror to the world.
He reiterated his statement, released after the Uri attack, that the perpetrators will not go unpunished.
“Our 18 soldiers had to sacrifice their lives because of terrorists exported by our neighbouring country.”
“And terrorists should clearly hear us, that India will never forget the Uri attack,” he said.
Referring to remarks of former Pakistani leaders of fighting a 1,000 year war with India, Modi said: “There is a government in Delhi today which is ready to accept the challenge.”
“I want to tell the people of Pakistan – India is ready to fight you,” Modi said, adding in a mellow tone, that both countries should fight against poverty, unemployment and illiteracy — “let’s see who wins”.
Addressing a public meeting here on the coast of Arabian Sea as part of BJP National Council meet, Modi said that the Pakistan government was “misleading” its people on Kashmir and a time will come when the people of Pakistan will rise against their own rulers on the issue of terrorism.
Hitting hard at Pakistan, Modi said there was a sense of anger among people over the audacious Uri attack and the deaths of soldiers.
In a dig at Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his address at the United Nations General Assembly, Modi said: “Today’s rulers were reading a speech of patrons of terrorism and talking of Kashmir.” His reference was to the wide belief that Sharif’s UN speech was written by Rawalpindi, the Pakistan army headquarters.
“Rulers of Pakistan listen, the sacrifice of 18 soldiers will not go waste. India has been successful in isolating you. We will force you to be left alone in the world. That day is not far when people of Pakistan will take to streets to fight against the rulers and fight terrorism,” he said.
Modi spent a large part of his forceful speech on the issue of terrorism with specific reference to the Uri incident.
“India has never bowed before terrorism. Will not do so. We will defeat terrorism,” Modi said.
He also made a direct appeal to the people of Pakistan.
“But today I want to speak to people of Pakistan. I want to remind them that before 1947 your forefathers too used to consider this country as your motherland, worship it. Keeping that in mind I want to ask a few things.”
“The people of Pakistan should ask their rulers… PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) is with you, you can’t even manage that. Earlier, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was with you, you could not manage that. You are unable to manage PoK, Sindh, Gilgit- Baltistan and Balochistan, and you are talking of Kashmir… They are misleading you on Kashmir,” he said.
He said people of Pakistan should ask their rulers that both countries had become independent at the same time, “so how is it that India exports software, but your leaders export terrorists”.
Modi also said the Army and security forces had foiled 17 recent attempts by terrorists to infiltrate.
“110 terrorists have been killed by the Indian Army. The terrorists have tried to strike 17 times recently, they were successful in one incident. You can imagine if they would had been successful in their attempts, how they could had harmed us,” he said adding that the country is proud of its soldiers, their sacrifice and their solidarity.
The Congress termed the Prime Minister’s speech as “verbal belligerence” that can never be a substitute for policy and action, while the Left dismissed it as “nothing new” and said the BJP-led central government lacked concrete policies to deal with the Pakistan and Kashmir issues.
The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) said India must explore all channels to isolate Pakistan diplomatically and economically on the issue of terrorism.
