Details of Balakot air strike should be made public: Mamata

Kolkata: DEMANDING THAT details of India’s air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad facility at Pakistan’s Balakot be made public, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that there should not be war between the two countries because of “political compulsions”.

“Amra jantei chaite pari air strike e kotojon mara geche. Kara mara geche. Actual ghotona ki….Amra desh ke bhalobasi. Kintu jawan der rokto diye rajniti amra bhalobasi na…. (We have the right to know how many people died in the air strike and who were they? We want to know the actual incident as we have not received any details…. We love the nation. But we do not like to see people play politics over bodies of our jawans….)” Mamata told reporters at the state secretariat on Thursday.

She also said that no action was taken in the past five years despite terror attacks in Uri and Pathankot. “Nothing happened in the past five years. There have been terror attacks in Uri and Pathankot but no action was taken. The government had received an advisory regarding the attacks, but no preventive action was taken and their (jawans’) lives were endangered,” she said.

Reacting to the chief minister’s statement, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha criticised her for raising questions over the air strike.

“Banerjee is disrespecting the position of her chair by making such comments. She is indirectly encouraging terrorist activities in Pakistan by doubting the air strike conducted by the Indian Air Force. This is unfortunate that the chief minister of a state made such a statement,” Sinha said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)