'Introspect',united opposition ask PM after Amarnath killings

Eighteen opposition parties, at a meeting convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, asked the Modi government to “introspect” on its “failure” to prevent the attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Anantnag on Monday in which seven were killed.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Centre over the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims, terming it a “grave and unacceptable security lapse” and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept responsibility.

“The government needs to introspect as to why, despite advanced intelligence inputs, was there a failure to prevent this attack,” the opposition leaders said in a resolution adopted at a meeting convened to select their joint nominee for the vice presidential election.

The leaders, including former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sitaram Yechury, Derek O'Brien, D Raja, Sharad Yadav, S C Mishra, Naresh Agarwal, Omar Abdullah, Praful Patel among others.

“We the leaders of the Opposition parties strongly condemn the cowardly and ghastly terrorist attack on the Amarnath yatris,” the resolution said.

The parties, the resolution added, extended their deepest sympathies to families of the victims with whom they stood in this hour of grief.

“This is an attack on humanity. This is an attack on the plurality and diversity of India. This is an attack on the human values and Kashmiriyat. We call upon the government to use all the resources at its command to bring the real masterminds and perpetrators of this inhuman act to justice,” the opposition leaders said.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the leaders of 18 opposition parties observed a two-minute silence at the start of the meeting in memory of the Amarnath yatris killed in Kashmir.