Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday wanted coercive action against Pakistan now in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack. “We should get 82 of them since 41 of our men have been killed,” asserted Singh, a former army captain, while demanding an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.
Asserting that the entire country was ‘fed up’ with the senseless killings of Indian soldiers in Kashmir, Singh said the coercive action could be military, diplomatic or economic, or a combination of all the three.
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Singh said it was for the Centre to decide what action should be taken, but it was clear that some measures have to be taken urgently.
“No one is asking anyone to go to war, but these killings of soldiers are not a joke. Something has to be done. I’m fed up, the country is fed up,” he said, according to an official release issued here.
“Pakistan can’t hold India to ransom just because they are a nuclear nation, even we are nuclear,” he said, asserting that Indian forces had defeated them during the 1999 Kargil war in spite of their nuclear capability.
In any case, Islamabad could never resort to use of nuke weapons, as international pressure would not allow that, he said, suggesting New Delhi should call Pakistan’s bluff against such threats.
The surgical strikes had not achieved the desired objective, he said, adding that Islamabad needs to be made to understand that Indian soldiers are not dispensable.