At the all-party meeting convened on Friday to address the cowardly terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, the opposition presented a united front—standing with the Centre while simultaneously tearing into the government over glaring lapses in national security. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, emerging from the meeting, declared that the opposition has demanded a “befitting reply” to the terrorism “nurtured and supported by Pakistan,” and expressed shock over the Prime Minister’s absence from a crucial national security meeting. “The PM found it more important to go to Bihar,” said the AAP Rajya Sabha MP.
The opposition also pressed for immediate accountability for the security failure and called on the government to clamp down on the hate being fueled across social media in the attack’s aftermath.
Speaking to the media after the all-party meeting convened in the wake of the cowardly terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh stated, “The entire nation is angry, upset, and outraged, and every citizen of the country wants the Government of India to respond to the terrorists in their own language, just as they have murdered our unarmed, innocent people. They killed unarmed, innocent tourists, and in the same language, the terrorists must be completely annihilated.”
He continued, “They should be destroyed, their camps should be destroyed, and since this is being orchestrated from Pakistan, action should also be taken against that Pakistan. This was conveyed unanimously by everyone today in the all-party meeting in front of the government.”
The Rajya Sabha MP criticised the absence of the Prime Minister from the high-level all-party meeting on national security. He said, “Secondly, this was a very serious and sensitive meeting, a meeting on a critical and sensitive issue of national security. So, we had expected that the Honourable Prime Minister would definitely attend this meeting. But he found his program in Bihar to be more important, and did not consider it important to attend this meeting. This was also raised by several members during the all-party meeting.”
Highlighting a serious intelligence and security lapse, he added, “Another very important piece of information that came to light is both ridiculous and painful in itself. This incident happened on 22nd April, and from 20th April itself, the site was opened without informing the security agencies. It was stated that earlier, only during the Amarnath Yatra tourists used to go there, but on 20th April, without any knowledge of the security agencies, the place was opened.”
“When a location sees 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 people going there, the police have no information, the army has no information, the CRPF has no information, and our intelligence agencies have no information—and then terrorists come, kill, and leave—this reveals a major security lapse. We have demanded that accountability should be fixed and action should be taken to understand how such a big security lapse occurred,” stated the AAP Rajya Sabha MP.
Sanjay Singh further described the government’s response to the security concerns as evasive and unsatisfactory. He said, “When it comes to the government’s response regarding this security lapse, their answer was the same as always—vague and roundabout, a traditional kind of response.”
He emphasised that along with this, members—including several parties associated with the ruling alliance—also raised the point that the way attempts are being made through social media and mainstream media to spread hatred across different parts of the country in the aftermath of this incident should be stopped. “Peace and harmony should be maintained in the country, and Pakistan-sponsored and Pakistan-supported terrorism should be dealt with in the strictest and most severe manner possible,” he concluded.
