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'I Repeat, Pakistan Will Pay For It': Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman On Two Terror Attacks In J&K

It is, however, not clear whether India would launch a strike against terror camps across the Line of Control like it did (the surgical strikes) after the 2016 terror attack on the army camp at Uri.

'I Repeat, Pakistan Will Pay For It': Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman On Two Terror Attacks In J&K
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Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said Pakistan will "pay" for two terror attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in two days.

Holding a press conference,  Sitharaman said: "I wouldn't certainly state a timeline (for action against Pakistan). But will say this, Pakistan will pay for this misadventure. I repeat, Pakistan will pay for it," Sitharaman said.

It is, however, not clear whether India would launch a strike against terror camps across the Line of Control like it did (the surgical strikes) after the 2016 terror attack on the army camp at Uri.

"The ministry of defence will stand by the Army. We have to work together with the Jammu and Kashmir government," the minister said. 

In a scathing attack on Pakistan, the minister said the neighbouring state has not taken any action "despite dossier after dossier given to them... In fact those responsible for Mumbai terror attack are freely roaming in Pakistan".

On Monday,  Sitharaman met J&K Mehbooba Mufti in Jammu to assess the security situation in the state.

She also visited those injured in the terror strike on the Army's Sunjuwan camp at a Military hospital in Jammu even as the sanitisation and clearing operation at the attack site was still on.

"I visited the injured in the Military hospital in Jammu and found about their condition," Sitharaman told reporters.

A CRPF constable was killed in a gunfight with terrorists in downtown Srinagar after security forces foiled militants' attempts to strike a CRPF camp. The mllitants were still holed up in an abandoned house in Karan Nagar in the heart of the city where intermittent firing was on.

Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, meanwhile, has claimed responsibility for the attack on the CRPF camp. Its Kashmir chief Mehmood Shah claimed in an e-mailed statement that the attack was perpetrated by its activists.

The heavily-armed militants tried to strike the CRPF camp, located very close to SMHS Hospital from where Lashkar- e-Taiba militant Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzala was freed from police custody by terrorists on February 6.

The incident comes two days after Jaish-e-Mohammad militants attacked an Army camp in Sunjwan area of Jammu, killing six people including five soldiers. Three militants were also killed in retaliation by the Army.

"The search operation is still on (at the camp)," Jammu- based Army public relations officer Lt Col Devender Anand told PTI.

(With PTI inputs)