Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday accused Pakistan of trying to destabilise India – a day after militants ambushed a CRPF convoy in Kashmir killing eight personnel –and said a central team will look into possible lapses which may have led to the incident.
He also said security forces have “standing orders” not to fire the first bullet, but “not count bullets while retaliating.”
A three-member team of Home Ministry officials will visit Kashmir on Tuesday to find out if there were any lapses involved in the attack in Pampore, the deadliest on security forces in recent years, in which eight CRPF personnel were killed and 22 were injured.
The team will look into the possible increase of cross border infiltration and practices being followed during the movement of paramilitary forces convoy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti while condemning the incident and paying tributes to the deceased CRPF personnel, said the people of the state were the “worst sufferers” of such attacks as these deprive them of development and employment.
Meanwhile, anti-Pakistan slogans were chanted in the J&K assembly by BJP MLAs.
Doubt If Standard Procedure Was Followed: Parrikar
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar expressed doubt if the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was followed properly by the bus-borne CRPF personnel at Pampore.
We will only get to know the exact reason after the inquiry.Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister
Parrikar termed the killings of CRPF personnel as an act of “frustration” on part of Pakistani terrorists several of whom were killed by Indian forces in the past year.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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