Hours after the strike across the Line of Control in Balakot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed ex-servicemen at a rally in Rajasthan’s Churu where he said the country was in safe hands.
“From Churu, I assure citizens the country is in safe hands,” Modi said to loud cheers.
While the prime minister did not make a direct reference to the strike, he said, “This is my word to Bharat Ma, I will let your head bow.”
This was Modi’s first public address after the strike. In a statement on Tuesday morning, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said India struck Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest camp in Pakistan in a “preemptive” action, killing a large number of terrorists and trainers of the terror group.
India said the group had been preparing to carry out suicide attacks in this country.
The foreign secretary did not take questions from the media, raising questions on details of the strike.
While Pakistan has said there were no casualties or damage, the country’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India had committed “aggression” by violating the LoC.
In Islamabad, Qureshi briefed Prime Minister Imran Khan after an “emergency meeting” with high-level officials at the Foreign Office (FO) for consultations.
“I consider it a violation of the LoC, and Pakistan has right to give a suitable response in self defence,” he told reporters.
At the Churu rally, Modi said he would reiterate his words from 2014, “I will let the country be wiped out, stopped or made to bow.”
Modi said nothing is above the country. “As pradhan sevak, I bow before the country,” he said.