Indian PM gives military freedom to respond to Kashmir attack

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given India’s military “operational freedom” to respond to a deadly attack in Kashmir last week, a senior government source told AFP Tuesday, after New Delhi blamed it on arch-rival Pakistan.

Modi told army and security chiefs in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that the armed forces had the “complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing of our response to the terror attack on civilians in Kashmir”, the source said.

Modi also said that it was India’s “national resolve to deal a crushing blow to terrorism”, the source added.

The government source was not authorized to speak to the media, but reports of Modi’s comments matched those carried in several of India’s major newspapers.

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have plummeted after India accused Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed.

Islamabad has rejected the charge, and both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, diplomatic barbs, expelled citizens and ordered the border shut.

Modi, the source added, had expressed his “complete faith and confidence in the professional abilities of the Indian Armed Forces”, and had given them his government’s full backing.

The government released video images of a stern-faced Modi meeting with army chiefs as well as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Last week Modi vowed to pursue those who carried out the attack in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam in Kashmir, and those who had supported it.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said on Thursday. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.

Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.

Rebels in the Indian-run area have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Pakistan demands neutral probe into Kashmir attack