PM Modi Chairs Key Meetings As India Prepares Pahalgam Response: 10 Points

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier today and “strongly condemned” the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. He has offered “full support” to India in its ongoing fight against terrorism.

Those who met PM Modi this evening included National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and key officials including the Defence Secretary, Home Secretary and other officials at the PMO. 

One of the meetings was with Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and the two have discussed combat readiness of the armed forces, sources said.

The meeting came a day after Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, met PM Modi.

On Saturday, Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi had briefed the Prime Minister on the situation in the critical sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.

In an earlier meeting with the chiefs of armed forces, PM Modi had given them “complete operational freedom” to decide on the mode, targets and timing of the response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

The Union Home Ministry, meanwhile, has issued directives to several states to conduct full-scale mock drills for civil defence that would include the operationalisation of air raid warning sirens.

Shortly after the April 22 attack, in which 26 people were shot dead in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, India took a series of non-military measures that included putting a freeze on the Indus water treaty, shutting the Attari border and cancelling visas of Pakistan nationals. 

Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh has hinted about another possible response too, saying, “As the defence minister… it is my responsibility to give a befitting reply, by working with the armed forces, to those who cast an evil eye on our country”.

India has identified five terrorists, three of them Pakistani nationals, behind the massacre.