Antony corrects himself, implicates Pak Army
New Delhi: In the line of fire for his controversial remarks on the Poonch attack that resulted in the death of five Indian jawans, Defence Minister A.K. Antony made a fresh statement in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The statement came after Antony met Army Chief Bikram singh who had visited the area of confrontation.
This is what he said:
Specialist troops of Pakistan Army were involved in the operations in Poonch.
Nothing can happen from the Pakistan side without the active support of the Pakistani army.
Pakistan should dismantle the terrorist network.
Reacting to the statement, Opposition leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj expressed happiness that the Defence Minister had set the records straight. She denied that the BJP had not played politics over the incident but wanted Pakistan to get a tough message.
In his earlier statement, Antony described the incident as attack by terrorists “dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms.”
Antony’s statement did not directly implicate the Pakistan Army. The original statement of the Army — issued from Jammu on Tuesday — had directly blamed the Pakistan Army and had clearly mentioned that its soldiers were ambushed by “20 heavily armed terrorists along with soldiers of Pakistan Army”. However, the Army later said the phrase “armed terrorists along with soldiers of the Pakistan Army” was to be amended to “armed terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms”.
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