Congress holds prayer meeting for Reasi terror attack victims in UP

Lucknow: The Congress on Monday held a prayer meeting at Shahid Smarak here for the pilgrims who were killed in the terrorist attack on a passenger bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district.

Paying his tribute to the deceased pilgrims, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said that no amount of condemnation would be enough for this cowardly incident committed by the terrorists.

Nine people were killed and 41 injured as the terrorists opened fire at the 53-seater bus, on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra, causing it to veer off the road and fall into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area of Reasi on Sunday.

"One thing is clear from the terror attack incident that now along with Kashmir, Jammu region is also not safe. The Central government has completely failed in establishing peace in Jammu and Kashmir and preventing terrorist attacks," Rai said.

In a statement issued from the state headquarters of the Congress, Rai alleged that "the (Narendra) Modi government makes itself happy by patting its own back, they did the same thing in Jammu and Kashmir also".

"Modi ji has been saying continuously that terrorism has been eradicated in Jammu and Kashmir, whereas the ground reality is that in the last 10 years, terrorist incidents have increased instead of decreasing and today the situation is such that now even Jammu division is not untouched by it," Rai said.

During the prayer meeting, the Congress leaders paid tributes to the deceased pilgrims by lighting candles. They also prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured in the attack, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Manish Hindvi said.

Many senior leaders of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee attended the prayer meeting, he added.