Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and former home secretary RK Singh on Monday said any militant attack on Parliament will cross a “red line”, ANI reported. Singh further said that India should have ordered its troops to attack Pakistan after the December 13, 2001 attack on the Lok Sabha. “We had mobilised troops but did not act,” he said.
The former home secretary’s remarks came after a report in The Times of India said the Jaish-e-Mohammad was planning attacks on locations like the Parliament and Delhi Secretariat to avenge the September 29 surgical strikes by the Indian Army. Intelligence documents quoted by the report say that militant operatives have been asked to target crowded places in Delhi if they fail to launch attacks on their primary objectives.
The Indian government has also reportedly asked arms suppliers to be prepared to increase their scale of production at short notice, according to The Economic Times. The report said the government had made similar requests after militants attacked an airbase in Pathankot in January.
Relations between India and Pakistan – already at a low because of the unrest in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8 – have worsened after a militant attack on an Army camp in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 left 19 soldiers dead. Both India and Pakistan have made strong statements warning of military action, and attacked each other at global diplomatic events.
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