Prime Minister Narendra Modi linked the deadly Pahalgam terror attack to the Partition of India in 1947 during an address on Tuesday — contending that people should have listened to Sardar Patel. The late freedom fighter, he opined, had wished for Indian troops to ‘not stop’ until Pakistan occupied Kashmir was returned to India.
“Mother India was torn into pieces in 1947. Katni chahiye thi zanjeerein par kaat di gayi bhujayein (The chains should have been cut, but the arms were chopped off.) The country was divided into three parts, and on the same night, the first terrorist attack took place on the soil of Kashmir,” he said.
Modi said Pakistan had “captured a part of Mother India with the help of terrorists” and contended that things would have been drastically different if people had listened to the first Home Minister of India. If these Mujahideen had been killed on the first day, Modi reiterated, then these terror incidents over the past 75 years would not have taken place.
The PM also pointed out Pakistan’s inability to defeat India in direct war and its shift to proxy warfare — lambasting it for using terrorism as a ‘war strategy’.
“When the need for war with Pakistan arose, India’s military power defeated Pakistan all three times. Pakistan understood that it could not defeat India in a war. It started a proxy war against India. They kept attacking wherever they got a chance, and we kept tolerating it,” he added.
Modi undertook a two-day visit to Gujarat this week — the first time he has visited his home state following Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
(With inputs from agencies)