NEW DELHI: The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has on Wednesday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
The envoy has been called in by Indian Foreign Secretary Jai Shankar to lodge a formal protest over the attack at Army Brigade Headquarters in Uri which killed eighteen soldiers. “We have recovered a number of items like Pakistani marked grenades, communication equipment and food and medicines made in Pakistan,” Ministry of External Affair spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
India blamed Pakistan for the Sunday’s attack in Uri which killed 18 Indian soldiers. All four terrorists were neutralised and their weapons, equipment and food and medicine were seized. This was the second attack on an Indian military base in the last one year. “The persistent and growing violation of this undertaking is a matter of very serious concern,” Swarup said in a statement.
MEA Spokesman Vikar Swarup also said that India is ready to provide finger prints and DNA samples of the attackers if Pakistan wishes to investigate the attacks. According to Indian media reports, Jaishankar reminded the High Commissioner of the “solemn commitment” made by Pakistan’s government earlier this year, to not allow the territory within its borders to be used for harbouring terrorist outfits.
“We demand that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India,” he said. He said that the terror attack in Uri only “underlines that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active. We demand that Pakistan live up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India.”
Starting with attack on the Pathankot airbase, there have been continuous attempts by armed terrorists to cross the LoC and International Boundary to strike in India, the spokesperson alleged. He claimed that 17 such attempts have been interdicted at or around the LoC, resulting in the elimination of 31 terrorists and preventing their intended acts of terrorism. “Foreign secretary also reminded him (Basit) that even as he spoke, two engagements at the LoC were ongoing,” he said.
He said that if the Government of Pakistan “wishes to investigate these cross-border attacks, India is ready to provide fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in the Uri and Poonch incidents”. “We now expect a response from the Government of Pakistan,” he said.
Earlier this week, DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh claimed that since the beginning of this year, there have been 17 infiltration attempts across the Line of Control (LoC). This number is higher, as compared to similar attempts made in the last three to four years. So far, 110 terrorists have been killed by the Indian army during various operations.
Out of these, 31 were killed while trying to cross the Line of Control. In the last two infiltration attempts, in Poonch and Uri, a total of eight terrorists were killed, four during each attempt.
