India hints at punitive strikes, Pakistan no more Most Favoured Nation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for the dastardly attack in which 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers lost their lives at Lethpora in Awantipora on Thursday afternoon.

A day after the horrific Awantipora terror strike, India hit back at Pakistan with a slew of economic and diplomatic measures while making it clear that a strong punitive action too was on the cards after the latter refused to even acknowledge the role of Maulana Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group based on its territory, in carrying out the suicide bombing in Awantipora area of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for the dastardly attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers lost their lives at Lethpora in Awantipora on Thursday afternoon. Mincing no words, Modi said that terror groups, their handlers and supporters have committed a massive blunder in targeting the Indian soldiers and they will pay heavily for the same.

"The entire country is up in arms. The terrorists will face the wrath of 130 crore Indians. Our security forces have complete freedom. We have full faith on the bravery and commitment of our soldiers. We will avenge this attack," said Modi while flagging off the Vande Bharat Express train, also known as Train 18, at New Delhi railway station.

The Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) also withdrew the Most Favoured Nation to Pakistan apart from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) initiating all possible diplomatic steps to ensure the complete isolation of Pakistan from the international community for having a direct hand in this incident.

While Jaitley informed that the MEA will spell out the details of the steps being undertaken in due course, one of the steps The MEA will also make sure that the international community works towards the goal of isolating nations supporting terrorism. He also backed the security forces who are thirsting for revenge. "As far as our security forces are concerned, they will be taking all possible steps firstly to ensure that full security is maintained and secondly to ensure that those who have committed are made to pay a heavy cost," he added.

The CRPF convoy was hit by a 22-year-old JeM suicide bomber in Lethpora. The terrorist identified as Adil Ahmed Dar drove a car packed with over 100 kilogrammes of explosives into a CRPF bus killing the soldiers.