Amritsar: Disapproving former Pakistan president General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf’s assertion that India was overreacting on the Pathankot terror attack, Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that Indians are not superfluous who can be shot by the Pakistani terrorists.
“We have had seven people killed. We will have to react. What do you think Indians are superfluous that we can let them shot? It is for them to control. What do they mean by over reaction? If one Pakistani soldier is shot, do you think Pakistan is not going to react?” Singh told ANI.
Singh, who is the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha, however, said that he is not against the cancellation of talks between both sides. “Talks must go on. I am not for cancellation of talks. But I don’t want to see everyday body bags coming from Kashmir. Our soldiers and officers are being killed every day and they have been coming down in coffins. That must stop,” he added.
Musharraf earlier in an interview to a Pakistani news channel asked India not to ‘overreact’ to the terror strike on the Pathankot air force base, saying both nations were victims of extremism. Musharraf said that terrorism was prevalent in both India and Pakistan due to which incidents like Pathankot would keep happening.
Accusing New Delhi of creating pressure on Islamabad when it came to terror attacks, the former president alleged that terrorism and extremism was quite prevalent in India as well. He also said that there was a lot of ‘disgruntlement’ among the Muslim community in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.
“I interacted with Vajpayee sahab and at the time we had very good ties with India. It all comes down to leadership in the end. We were moving forward with him and Manmohan sahab. Unfortunately, it’s not working under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. His popularity has dampened post his loss in Delhi and Bihar,” Musharraf said.
“Vajapayee and Manmohan were more sincere when it came to resolving dispute. A good leader is always flexible. Things can’t work out if you are hell-bent on your own stand,” he added. Downplaying Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to Islamabad, he added that it was just a case of ‘showmanship’ and there was nothing substantial about his visit.
