Rajnath briefs PM as LoC on edge; J&K passes resolution

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and briefed him on the security dynamics in Jammu & Kashmir and the military's readiness after the Pahalgam terror attack, the 40-minute meeting coming hours after the Pakistan Army opened fire at several Indian posts along the Line of Control (LOC) and violated the ceasefire for the fourth straight day.

- Rahul Singh and Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

The meeting-which came a day after Modi reiterated his resolve to give the "harshest punishment" to the terrorists assumes significance in the context of India considering military options to target the neighbouring country for its support to terror; it has already suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, downgraded bilateral ties, and shut down the only operational land border crossing at Attari after the April 22 attack that killed 26 people.

Earlier in the day, the Jammu & Kashmir assembly unanimously passed a resolution expressing shock and anguish over the attack and resolved to defeat designs to "disturb communal harmony". The resolution which didn't mention Pakistan was passed after a discussion where chief minister Omar Abdullah said he will not cite the attack to push for statehood for the Union territory.

"As the chief minister and tourism minister of Jammu & Kashmir, I had invited these people here. It was my responsibility to ensure they were sent back safely to their homes. I could not send them back," a visibly emotional CM said, adding that he had no words to apologise to the victims.

Last Tuesday, a group of heavily armed terrorists emerged from the woods and targeted tourists on the lush Baisaran grassland near Pahalgam in Kashmir. Twenty six people died all men, 25 of them tourists, and 24 of them Hindus - in the attack that was reminiscent of the heydays of militancy in the 1990s and 2000s and the worst to rock the country since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF), claimed responsibility for the attack that coincided with US vice president JD Vance's visit to India.