Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday, 26 November, trained guns at Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa over the attacks in Pathankot and Amritsar, and warned him against disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of Punjab and the country.
“I would like to ask Pakistan Army chief Qamar Bajwa something, as a soldier. Which army teaches to violate ceasefire and kill jawans on the other side? Which army teaches to send people to attack Pathankot and Amritsar? This is cowardliness,” said Singh.
“I am warning you (Pakistan Army chief Qamar Bajwa), we are also Punjabis, you will not be allowed to enter here and vitiate the atmosphere,” he added.
Singh was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor to connect the Dera Baba Nanak Gurudwara in Gurdaspur to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur across the LoC in Pakistan’s Punjab.
Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu, along with Singh, laid the foundation stone for the corridor. Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Nitin Gadkari were also present.
Backing Singh’s comments, Naidu said killing of innocent people will not be tolerated.
“I must tell what Punjab CM said, that we can't allow terrorism and can't let innocents die, this isn't going to help, it's not the way; it must be understood. That’s why, let this be the start of this great event,” he said.
Singh on Sunday had declined Pakistan's invite to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor on the other side of the border, even as his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu accepted the request.
In a letter to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Singh said though it was a historic occasion, he regretted his inability to be present, citing terror attacks in his state and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan troops as the reason.
“Firstly, not a day passes when Indian soldiers are not killed or wounded on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than moving towards normalcy, these incidents are escalating,” he said.
Secondly, the chief minister had claimed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has started its nefarious activities in Punjab.
"Since March 2017, the state has neutralised 19 ISI-armed and controlled modules, apprehended 81 terrorists and seized 79 weapons, numerous grenades of the HG-84 type made in Pakistan's Ordnance factories with Austrian know how, and some IEDs," the chief minister claimed.
The last attack took place in Amritsar few days ago, on a peaceful religious congregation in a village. Three people were killed and 19, including children, were wounded, Singh said, adding that the terrorists had been caught.
"I hope that the (Pakistan) prime minister will understand the circumstances... It will not be possible for me to be present in Pakistan on this historic occasion, despite the fact that paying my respects at Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib has always been my cherished dream which will hopefully be fulfilled once these hostilities and killings are stopped," he said.
Thanking Qureshi for the invitation, Singh recalled his visit to Pakistan as Punjab chief minister in the past.
"As you will see from the stone laid at the Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib, it was my grandfather Maharaja Bhupindra Singh who carried out flood protection measures from 1920 to 1929 to protect our gurdwara which was being ravaged by floods in river Ravi each year," Singh wrote in the letter.
Singh expressed hope that the Pakistan prime minister "will do all he can to bring the two countries together on the road to peace and friendship."
(With inputs from PTI)
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