Hitting out at Pakistan for aiding and abetting terrorism, NDA’s vice presidential nominee Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday delivered a stern warning to Islamabad – “Recall what happened in 1971”.
Addressing “Kargil Parakram Parade”, the former Union minister said that terrorism is the enemy of humanity, it has no religion and it has unfortunately become Pakistan’s state policy.
“Our neighbour should understand that aiding and abetting terror will not help them, they should recall what happened in 1971...Terrorism is the enemy of humanity, it has no religion. Pakistan is mixing terrorism with religion. It has unfortunately become Pakistan's state policy,” said Naidu.
He further said that Kashmir is an integral part of India and not an “inch” of it will be allowed to be taken.
“We are a peace loving people, we never attacked any country and this is our specialty. We don't want war, we don't want confrontation, we don't want violence we want to have peace, we also want to have good relation with the neighbours but they should also reciprocate the same. They should remember that Kashmir is an integral part of India and not an inch of even PoK will be allowed to be taken by anybody,” he said.
He also squarely blamed Pakistan for funding terrorism and influencing the situation in Kashmir.
"Ours is a peace loving country. We never want war. But when this highly coveted peace is denied to us, our brave soldiers respond in a befitting manner..we are too strong to lose our focus to country's development and betterment of the country," he said.
Naidu’s comments comes amid the increasing number of ceasefire violations and infiltratyion attempts along the Line of Control (LoC) by Pakistan in recent months. This year alone, the Army foiled a total of 22 infiltration bids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
His warning also comes at a time when nations across the world are raising voices over Islamabad’s continued inaction on terror safe havens and terror acts perpetrated allegedly by its proxies in India and Afghanistan.
Just two days ago, the Trump administration in the US said it was blocking $350 million in coalition support funds to Pakistan as it had not taken "sufficient actions" against the dreaded Haqqani terror network. And on Wednesday, the US listed Pakistan among the nations providing " safe havens " to terrorists, saying terror groups like the LeT and JeM continued to operate, train, organise and fund-raise inside the country.
