PM Modi hits out at opposition leaders raising questions over Balakot airstrike

Hitting out at those who are raising questions over the IAF strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that instead of hailing the feat, they were leaders in the country who were busy asking if the strike was carried out in Balakot in Pakistan or Bala Kote along LoC in India. “Recognise this ‘Tudke Tudke’ gang. Pakistan first tweeted that Indian forces had entered their house and killed terrorists. But in our country, there are ‘sirphire’ (mentally not stable) people, who started saying at 8-9 am, where is Balakot—in India or Pakistan,” he said while addressing a gathering here.

“Pakistan was crying. Here in India people started helping them. When Indian forces are saying something, then should there be any suspicion? Those who have Indian blood, love for tricolour flag, and chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai,’ should there be any suspicion,” he asked. On February 26 wee hours, the IAF carried out strikes at JeM’s largest training centre at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, targeting key operatives of dreaded terror outfit—Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which carried out a debilitating attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama in south Kashmir on February 14 in which as many as 40 jawans were killed.

Initially, there was confusion about the location of IAF’s target, as there is a place called Bala Kote along the Line of Control (LoC), close to Rajouri. It was, however, turned out to be Balakot in Pakistan when Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale cleared the air in his first-morning briefing to the press. “In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of Tuesday, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot…In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis, who were being trained for fidayeen action, were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghouri, the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, chief JeM,” Gokhale had said.

Prime Minister Modi said: “After Uri attack, India did a surgical strike and taught lessons to terrorists for the first time in the language they understand. Evidence was being asked after Uri surgical strike.” “After Pulwama terror attack, our forces did something which was not done in the past for decades. Our heroes have killed the terrorists in their dens. They were not expecting this type of answer from India,” he said.

Talking about IAF’s air strike after Pulwama terrorist attack, he said: “They thought that Modi did surgical strike for the first time. Our forces deployed ammunition and other stuff at the border and we went there by air. We were silent after doing this, but Pakistan started crying at 5 am that Modi hit them…” Taking at a jibe at the previous Congress-led NDA government under the leadership of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said: “India can never forget that on November 26, 2008, 10 terrorists from Pakistan came to Mumbai and carried out terror attacks.”

“All the evidence was indicating towards their bosses of terror in Pakistan. There are some reports that Indian forces want to something after this. But our security forces were not given free hand,” he said. The Prime Minister said: “Remember the bomb blast at a bakery in Pune in 2010. In the same year, there was a bomb blast at Dashashmeshh Ghat in Varanasi. In 2011, there was another terrorist attack in Mumbai. Bombs explode in Oprah House, Zaveri Bazar, and Dadar."

"The bomb blast took place in front of the Delhi High Court. What they did. They did not do anything but changed Home Ministers. Had they taught lessons to terrorists, they would not have become so dangerous today,” he said. Talking about development in Noida under his regime, Prime Minister Modi said: “Today Noida is known for the new development opportunities. Noida is growing as a big hub for ‘Make in India.’ Earlier, Noida used to be in the news because of the loot of public money, and corruption in authority, tender, and land scams.”

“Before 2014, there were only two factories for mobile phone manufacturing in the country. Now there are around 100 factories and the majority of them are located in Noida,” he said. He said: “The biggest airport which is being constructed at Jewar will improve the connectivity. Every citizen use planes. With this goal, 120 routes have been started so far.”

Criticising the previous governments for the slow pace of growth, he said: “Between 1950 and 2014, about 2.5 lakh MW power generation capacity building was done. In less than five years, our government has added more than one lakh MW capacity.” “Our dream is—one world, one sun, and one grid,” said Prime Minister Modi. “To improve the country’s power sector, our government has worked with new policies, with a new approach,” he said. “We focused on four things, worked at four different levels--production, transmission, distribution, and connection,” he said.

Talking about the success of the Central government, he said: “Our government has also achieved the goal of providing electricity to every village in the country.” “More than 18,000 villages where electricity was not reached even after so many years of independence are getting power supply now. Under the ‘Saubhagya’ scheme, we launched a campaign to provide electricity to every house and have given electricity connections to 2.5 crore households free of cost,” said Prime Minister Modi.

(With inputs from agencies.)