Uri attack temporary setback in fight against terrorism: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday described the Uri attack as a temporary setback in a “may be protracted” battle against growing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Shah, in his opening speech at the BJP national council here, condemned the militant strike at the Uri army base, which left 18 soldiers dead, and reiterated his party’s resolve of zero tolerance against terrorism.

Having skipped mentioning cross-border terror in his public address at the Kozhikode beach on Friday, Shah later read out a statement on ‘Uri and Terrorism’, which was approved by the BJP national council. On Saturday, during his address at a rally here, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shamed Pakistan for exporting terror.
 
“Uri is only a temporary setback, the final victory will be ours. The prime minister has promised that the perpetrators shall not go unpunished,” Shah said in a statement issued on the concluding day of the party’s three-day national conclave, meant to celebrate its ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya’s birth centenary.

Shah virtually ruled out any immediate action, but insisted that the “army will have the final victory” in the fight to eliminate terror. “If terrorism becomes the instrument of state policy, then it needs to be described as no less than a war crime. Pakistan is today openly supporting and sponsoring terrorism as a state policy. India has been a long-time victim of this policy,” he said.