Will not forget Uri, ready to fight 1,000-year war: Modi

The Prime Minister said the "sacrifice" of the 18 soldiers killed in the Uri attack "will not go in vain" and India will continue to make efforts to "isolate Pakistan" in the global stage

Prime Minister Narendra Modi squarely targetted Pakistan on September 24, saying India will not forget the sacrifices of 18 soldiers killed in the Uri terror attack and will work to isolate Pakistan globally for exporting terror.

Addressing the BJP National Council meet here, Modi said that the Pakistan government was "misleading" its people on Kashmir.

Speaking of the Pakistani leadership's talks about a "thousand years' war" with India, Modi added that the central government in Delhi was ready to accept its challenge.

"Let me tell you that there is a government in Delhi that accepts your challenge," he said.

However, mellowing down the rhetoric, the Indian Prime Minister called upon its neighbouring country to "fight the war" against poverty, unemployment and illiteracy and "see who wins".

"The people of Pakistan should ask their rulers... PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) is with you, you can't even manage that. Earlier, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was with you, you could not manage that. You are unable to manage PoK, Sindh, Gilgit- Baltistan and Balochistan, and you are talking of Kashmir... They are misleading you on Kashmir," he said.

Modi said he wanted to remind the people of Pakistan that before Partition in 1947, their forefathers also considered this land as their own.

"I want to speak to the people of Pakistan. I want to remind them that before 1947 your forefathers too used to consider this country as your motherland and worship it," told Modi. 

Taking a dig at the nieghbouring country, Modi also asked as to how Pakistan had managed to export terrorists while India exported software.

He said the "sacrifice of 18 soldiers" killed in the Uri attack "will not go in vain" and that India will continue to make efforts to "isolate Pakistan" in the global stage.

Earlier in his speech, Modi had said that there was one nation in Asia that did not want peace or development and had been "exporting terrorism" in the world, adding that it affected India's other neighbouring countries including Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

"In the world when reports of terrorism come, then this news also follows that the terrorists came from that (neighbouring) country, or like Osama bin Laden, have found a hideout there."

He said Indian forces were giving befitting reply to all terror acts.