Despite Opposition pressure, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday refrained from directly naming Pakistan while making statement on the Srinagar terror attack in both houses of Parliament.
However, he did indicate a link of the country to the incident.
“The killed terrorists are suspected to be of foreign origin,” he said in his identical statements in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Even after repeated pressures from members in Rajya Sabha, Shinde did not name the neighbouring country in relation to the incident which took lives of five CRPF jawans, and even clarified that he did not say that the terrorists were Pakistanis and only mentioned them as foreigners.
He also refrained from attributing the act to any terror group.
“Although the responsibility for the incident was owned by an agent of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the authenticity of the claim is yet to be ascertained,” said Shinde.
However, the home minister indicated Pakistani link of the killed terrorists.
“From the bodies of terrorists killed, two diaries, each containing numbers suspected to be of Pakistanis and a tube of Betnovate, a skin ointment, was recovered,” Shinde informed Parliament.
“Further investigations reveal that this tube was manufactured in Glaxo Smithkline Pak Ltd, at 35 Dockyard, Karachi. The name of the tube mentioned in Urdu and the numbers mentioned in the diaries appear to be of Pakistani origin,” he added.
Main Opposition BJP targeted Pakistan and accused the government of being soft to the country.
He also said that the bodies of the terrorists killed in the encounter were shaven, which confirms them to be fidayeen (suicide squad). “The External Affairs Minister treats Pakistani Prime Minister to a sumptuous lunch when he comes to Ajmer Sharif and just four days later, this terror attack happens,” said Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.