Amid heightened tensions with Pakistan, the Union government on Thursday held its second all-party meeting since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack to brief political leaders on the success and aftermath of ‘Operation Sindoor’.According to sources, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the meeting, told leaders that Indian strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under ‘Operation Sindoor’ had killed at least 100 terrorists.They said the defence minister also informed the leaders that it was an ongoing operation and that India will hit back if Pakistan attacks in the wake of India’s targeted strike. Notably, Islamabad on Wednesday vowed to retaliate against the precision strikes carried out by India’s armed forces.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters after the meeting that it was convened to evolve a broad political consensus on the issue and leaders showed maturity and did not indulge in bickering.The leaders also shared their concerns over the issue of national security and safety of all Indians, especially in border areas, but extended all support and that the nation was united in this fight against terrorism.”All the leaders have shown maturity at a time when we are all working together. Everyone has hailed and congratulated the armed forces for Operation Sindoor, and said that we will support the government and armed forces. We have received a few suggestions as well,” he said.He also said that the Defence Minister told the meeting that “we don’t do politics just for forming governments, but also to build the nation.””The Raksha mantri told the meeting that it was an ongoing operation and that is why he cannot share the technical details of Operation Sindoor that was launched by Indian armed forces,” he said.This, he said, is also the reason why no armed forces officials were present at the all-party meeting, as they were busy with the operations.Meanwhile, Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi and Rajya Sabha LoP Mallikarjun Kharge both spoke to reporters after the meeting, reiterated their support for the armed forces and backed the government’s anti-terror action.”We have extended our full support to the government. As Mallikarjun Kharge ji said, they (the government) said that there are a few things that we don’t want to discuss,” Rahul said.”In the meeting, we heard what they (Centre) had to say. They also said that certain confidential information cannot be shared outside. We told them that we all are with the government,” Kharge said.AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said he complemented the armed forces and the Government of India for conducting Operation Sindoor.”I also said that we should run an international campaign against TRF and the UN Security Council should designate it as terror organisation. We also need to ask the United States to designate TRF as foreign terrorist organisation in the country,” he said.Thursday’s all-party meeting saw Union ministers Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, JP Nadda and Nirmala Sitharaman representing the government, while Rahul and Kharge from the Congress, Sandip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress and DMK’s T R Baalu were among the leading opposition figures.Other opposition leaders included Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Sanjay Singh of the AAP, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, BJD’s Sasmit Patra and CPI(M)’s John Brittas.JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha, Union minister and LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi were also part of the meeting.In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes early Wednesday on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base Muridke.The military strikes were carried out under ‘Operation Sindoor’ two weeks after the massacre of 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.The government had earlier called an all-party meeting on April 24 to brief leaders on the attack.
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