Addressing a rally in Rachi, Jharkhand, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his April 19 visit to Srinagar as he had credible intelligence about an imminent attack in the valley.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was quick to term Kharge's statement as 'irresponsible' and one that marks visible duplicity in Congress stand to fight terrorism.
The Congress President's claims comes at a time when several districts are reading itself to conduct a mock drill for effective civil defence on May 7-- after a late evening announcement by the Home Ministry on Monday (May 5).
Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, died when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. India has announced several punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, which governed the flow of the Indus River and its tributaries.
"There is an intelligence failure; the government has accepted it, and they will resolve it. If they knew this, why didn't they do anything? I got information that three days before the attack, an intelligence report was sent to PM Modi, and therefore, he cancelled his programme to visit Kashmir. I also read this in a newspaper," he was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI. Kharge further said the BJP-led Central government had admitted that the attack was the result of an intelligence failure.
However, Kharge, during his address reiterated that the Congress stands with the government for any action against Pakistan. "Congress stands with the government for any action against Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack. The country is supreme," remarked the Congress president.
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