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Indian Army vehicles move towards border areas in Akhnoor sector on India Pakistan Border at Akhnoor 35 km about from Jammu on Friday.[/caption]
New Delhi, September 30 : The Centre on Friday issued a country-wide alert asking the states to heighten vigil to foil any attempt by Pakistan-based terror groups to carry out attacks amid apprehensions of backlash by terrorists after the surgical strike on their launch pads in PoK.
In an advisory, the Home Ministry conveyed to the states that additional forces should be deployed in all sensitive places, strategic installations, markets, religious places and other key places to ensure security, an official source said. Metro cities were particularly asked to be extra vigilant.
States touching the border with Pakistan — Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat — were also directed to remain vigilant, sources said. The advisory has been sent in the wake of Wednesday night’s surgical strike by Indian army in terror launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Sources said there is high probability that Pakistani agencies may try to use the terror groups to carry out strike in Indian soil to avenge yesterday’s attack. India carried out ‘surgical strikes’ on terror launch pads across LoC on the intervening night of September 28 and 29, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists and those who are trying to support them.
Villages in Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat that are close to the border have been evacuated in anticipation of possible shelling from the Pakistan side. Meanwhile, Mumbai 26/11 attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed warned India that Pakistani jawans would retaliate and avenge yesterday’s surgical strikes.
Ready to counter any external threat: Sharif
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said Islamabad is ready to counter any external threat, adding the entire nation and the government stand with the armed forces. The remarks were made during a meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by him to discuss the situation in Kashmir and the cross-border fires at the Line of Control (LoC), reports ANI from Islamabad. The federal cabinet condemned what they called the unprovoked firing at the LoC in which two Pakistani soldiers were killed, reports Geo TV. Two Pakistani soldiers and over 30 terrorists were reportedly killed in the attack by Indian army.
Meanwhile, during the meeting Prime Minister Sharif reiterated that Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people of Kashmir and it is an incomplete agenda of the partition of the subcontinent.
Condemning the surgical strikes, what they called “Indian aggression at the LoC”, Sharif said that Pakistan is ready to counter any external threat.
After five nations pulled out of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit that was scheduled to take place in Islamabad in November, Pakistan on Friday announced that it is postponing the summit and fresh dates would be issued soon. The announcement comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to skip the summit and amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.
SAARC member countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka too conveyed to Nepal, the chair of SAARC, that they too will not be able to attend the summit. All four countries, in different ways, blamed Pakistan for the rise in cross-border terror attacks.