Congress takes on Parrikar, says Pak "still offensive"

The Congress Party on Saturday appeared not to be in tune with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's assertion that firing from across the border had stopped in the last two days as the enemy was feeling the heat of retaliation and said the fact remains that even now Pakistan is offensive and India is at the receiving end.

Congress leader P.C. Chacko said the Defence Minister is unaware about the ground realities at the border and the problems being faced by the Indian jawans.

Chacko told ANI, "We have a Defence Minister who probably does not understand what is happening in our border, what kind of attacks are the jawans facing from Pakistan's side after the surgical strike which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister was claiming as a big adventure. Continuously without interruption, Pakistan was shelling Indian posts and many jawans were killed and a jawan's body was badly mutilated."

"In spite of that if the Defence Minister can make such statements. I don't think that he understand the reality or understand the problem." he added.

Speaking at a rally at Sankhalim village in Goa, Parrikar said India's retaliation against "cowardly attacks" from across the border was so strong that the Pakistan Army pleaded with the neighbour to halt its response.

"We told them that we don't mind stopping (the counter attacks) as we are not interested in it, provided they too stop it. For last two days, the firing has stopped from across the border," he said.

Referring to the surgical strike, Parrikar said, "For the first time, the Union Government allowed the Army to enter PoK and teach lesson to those involved in the cowardly act against our forces. It was such a powerful response that some days back, finally they called us that 'please stop this, we are pleading with you'. We said that we have no problem stopping it, but you stop it too. As a result, there is no firing on the border."

The Defence Minister's assertion came three days after the killing of three Indian soldiers and the mutilation of the body of one of them near the Line of Control (LoC).