Pahalgam terror attack: Defence minister Rajnath Singh vows 'loud & clear' response

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday assured the nation of a "loud and clear" response to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 28 people, mostly tourists.
Rajanth Singh said that the government would hunt down not only the perpetrators who carried out the ghastly attack, but also those behind the scenes.
"Yesterday, in Pahalgam, targeting a particular religion, terrorists executed a cowardly act, in which we lost many innocent lives... I want to assure the countrymen that the government will take every necessary step. We will not only reach the perpetrators of this act but also the actors behind the scenes... The accused will soon see a loud and clear response, I want to assure the country," Rajnath Singh said in Delhi, hours after he chaired a high-level meeting with CDS and three service chiefs.
The meeting, which was also attended by defence secretary and the Army's Director General of Military Operations, came in the wake of a ghastly terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. Army Chief General Upendra Dwiwedi and Navy chief Dinesh Tripathi briefed Rajnath Singh on the security situation in Pahalgam and surrounding areas, sources told news agency ANI.
According to sources, top officers have rushed to the affected areas, with local security forces on alert, and additional troops are being inducted in the area to carry out the search and destroy operations to nab the terrorists responsible for the attack.
"More troops have been inducted in the areas near the attack site to carry out search and destroy operations," the source told ANI.
Earlier on Tuesday, the defence minister expressed "deep anguish" over the attack, calling it a cowardly and reprehensible attack on innocent civilians.
A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) led by an Inspector General reached terror-hit Pahalgam.
The team would provide assistance to the local police probing Tuesday's dastardly terrorist attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists from different parts of the country, were killed in cold blood, the sources said.