In all-party meeting, Govt discusses situation, briefs leaders on Pahalgam terror attack

PTI, NEW DELHI, APRIL 24: The Union government on Thursday briefed leaders of various political parties on the Pahalgam terror attack and heard their views at an all-party meeting here.

Coming out of the meeting, AAP's Sanjay Singh said all political parties demanded action by the government for the destruction of terror camps. Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay said security lapses were discussed at the meeting, and all parties were with the government in handling terrorism. At the beginning of the meeting, a moment of silence was observed for the victims of the attack.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju were present from the government's side. Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha JP Nadda, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were present at the meeting, which was chaired by Singh.

Those who attended the meeting included NCP-SP's Supriya Sule, NCP's Praful Patel, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, BJD's Sasmit Patra, TDP's Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde, AAP's Sanjay Singh, TMC's Sudip Bandopadhyay, RJD's Premchand Gupta, DMK's T. Siva, and SP's Ram Gopal Yadav.

The all-party meeting comes a day after the government announced a host of measures targeting Pakistan in the aftermath of Tuesday's Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, mostly tourists. The decision to call an all-party meeting was taken on Wednesday, with Singh and Shah reaching out to various parties. It has been a convention to call an all-party meeting following an incident with serious repercussions related to national security, as was seen after the Pulwama terror attack in 2019 or during the India-China standoff in 2020.

However, earlier in the day, the Congress took a swipe at the JD-U over its decision to skip the all-party meeting due to prior engagements, saying that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi's priority is elections, JD-U's priority is the PM, and so the meeting on the terror strike can wait.

The Opposition party's swipe came after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United, a key BJP ally, said it had extended full support to the Centre on its response to the Pahalgam terror attack. While the party's leaders will not be able to attend the all-party meeting due to prior engagements, JD-U spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan said: "We stand with each and every decision of the government."

Reacting to the development, Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said: "Prime Minister's priority is elections. JD-U's priority is Prime Minister. All-party meeting on terror attack can wait."