"Multifaceted Terror Attack, Hit Economic Lifeline": J&K MLA Sajjad Lone
Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference (JKPC) MLA Sajad Lone told NDTV the terrorists who killed 26 tourists at Pahalgam launched a "multifaceted attack" to drag the region back to the dark days before special status was scrapped.
Mr Lone said the people of Kashmir came out on the streets to reject terror in huge numbers, and they have crossed their threshold.
"They are going to be resilient enough not to get threatened or cowed down by these cowards," Mr Lone told NDTV.
He said a lot of common people spoke to him, but there was "a deafening silence".
"You can see that as if this place is mourning. There is mourning in the air and it's from the core of the heart. They're mourning the loss of their friends, their tourists, their guests... Very rarely I've seen such a show of unanimity and unconditionally, unambiguously. There are no conditions attached. Everybody is condemning it," Mr Lone told NDTV.
He pointed out that apart from the painful loss of civilians, the local people will also get hurt in many ways as the terror attack was meant to finish their economic lifeline.
"I feel very odd talking about other things when people have died, somebody has lost a father, somebody has lost a husband, somebody has lost a son. But you have to understand that in this killing, this is a multifaceted terror attack. Of course, the most vicious part of it is to kill these innocent people who were tourists who had come here to have a good time," Mr Lone said.
"And equally vicious, and a facet of this terror attack is to destroy and hit at, assault the economic lifeline of Kashmir, which is tourism. [They] smear our identity of hospitality, culture of hospitality with an indelible dark mark, a dark milestone. We have a culture of hospitality, which dates to more than 100 years," the MLA said.
"These villains have come and uprooted everything for us, societally, socially, we don't know. We can't explain to the whole world it's not us. It was a soil that was used by outsiders. And tourism is an economic lifeline. They've hit at it and they know it hurts. They basically want Kashmiris to be out on the roads, be beggars and be tools for exploitation. So, as I said, it's multifaceted. In the short term, we see that they kill these innocent people. And in the longer term, it is the economic lifeline that they are struck at," Mr Lone said.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is meeting today to discuss a response to the Pahalgam terror attack, sources said.
The CCS on Security is the highest decision-making body for appointing heads of national security agencies as well. The meeting included top leaders, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who were part of the committee.
Earlier today, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Indian Air Force Chief Marshal AP Singh, and other officials to discuss the security situation in the region.
"The meeting discussed all issues related to the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The issue is expected to be discussed in further detail in the Cabinet Committee on Security meeting, likely to be held today," a source told news agency ANI.
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