Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) Sushma Swaraj on Thursday welcomed Defence Minister A.K.Antony's statement in Parliament, which acknowledged the involvement of the Pakistani Army in Tuesday's killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line Of Control (LoC).
"The opposition is not politicising the issue, but we were just trying to show Pakistan the real sentiment of the Parliament and the people of this country through your medium. Today, the entire Parliament supports this statement of yours and sends out a message to Pakistan that such incident cannot be repeated again," Swaraj said in the Lok Sabha today.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony drew a lot of flak for his initial statement to the Houses of Parliament which said that the intruders were "terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniform," while the Indian Army's statement clearly indicated the direct involvement of the Pakistan Army, saying that the perpetrators were "soldiers from the Pakistan Army."
On Thursday, shortly after noon, Antony made a fresh statement in Parliament after being briefed on the facts by Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh.
"It is now clear that Specialist Forces of the Pakistan Army were involved in the attack. Those in Pakistan who are responsible for this tragedy, should not go unpunished. Our restraint should not be taken for granted," said Antony.
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Antony said that his earlier statement to both Houses of Parliament were made on the basis of facts available to him then, and that now, he was making a fresh and amended statement based on the feedback provided to him by General Bikram Singh after the latter's visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
"We all know that nothing happens from the Pakistan side of the LoC without the support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan Army. Pakistan must take steps to punish those responsible for the attack. Pakistan should also dismantle all terrorist apparatus on its soil," said Antony.
He also warned that attacks such as this will have consequences not only on the Line of Control (LoC), but also naturally on the (future) relationship with Pakistan.
He said that the Indian Government would not stand by the wayside and allow the sanctity of the LoC to be violated time and again.
"The capacity of our armed forces, the resolve of the government to uphold the sanctity of the LoC should not be doubted
Additionally, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Thursday also praised Antony's revised statement on the LoC killings, saying that though it aligned with the opposition's view of the incident, they (BJP) have demanded a parliamentary discussion on the incident itself as well as the country's reaction to Islamabad.
"Sushma Swaraj has clearly expressed the satisfaction of our party with the latest statement that our Defence Minister has given in which he has said, though he has not used the word regret, he has clearly corrected the statement he had made earlier. He is saying that it was the Pakistani Army who was involved in the killing of our jawans. He is saying that we will reply to Pakistan along the LoC, he is saying that there will be consequences in the India-Pak relationship, as a result of this incident. So, all the issues that we were raising have more or less been covered by this statement. So, we have no problem with the statement but we have still demanded that there should be a debate in the House on the broader issue of the incident and the consequences of that incident," Sinha said.
Sinha also reiterated that the BJP was strongly against pursuing talks with Pakistan after Tuesday morning's killing of five Indian soldiers in Poonch District of Jammu and Kashmir.
The controversy on Antony's original statement broke out after the BJP noted that the Minister's statement contradicted that of the Army.
The army's statement said terrorists and Pakistani soldiers were involved. "Terrorists and persons dressed in Pakistan Army Uniform," read out by the minister in Parliament. In other differences, the Army release talked about "the "frustration" and "desperation" of terrorists' and the Pakistan army"; Antony's did not.
There is speculation now that the minister's statement, based on the army's on-ground report, might have been altered at the highest bureaucratic levels. Sources said earlier that the statement read out by Antony was vetted by several senior officials, including National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.
The Prime Minister's Office has, meanwhile, rubbished as "mischievous" some reports that the statement was changed at its behest.
Sources said that the NSA, who was present at the meeting between the BJP leaders and the Prime Minister on Wednesday evening, suggested that the substance of the two statements was the same, but the BJP refused to buy his argument.
The BJP team had then conveyed its "deep anguish" to the Prime Minister at what they called Mr. Antony's "blunder" and warned that the minister's statement would eventually help Pakistan.
