Want good ties with Pak but not at cost of our dignity: India

Sending out a message to Pakistan, India on Wednesday said it wants good relations but not at the cost of its “pride, dignity and self-respect” and that it will ensure that “our enemies” cannot go scot-free as even small incidents of terrorism have to be “treated as war”.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar asserted in the Lok Sabha that security has been stepped up on the borders ever since the Pathankot attack in January. 

He said till now it has not been identified through which route the attackers managed to sneak into the Pathankot airbase. Howver, he insisted that six terrorists were involved in the attack, amid contention by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that the investigators had found only four bodies.

Parrikar as also Home Minister Rajnath Singh were responding to a debate, during which the government came in for a scathing attack over handling of the Pathankot attack, with the Opposition dubbing as a “critical mistake” the decision to handover the operation to NSG.

The opposition also questioned as to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lahore stopover had achieved, noting that the terror strike had happened just a few days after that.

In his reply, Singh said India wants good relations with all neighbours but not at the cost of self-respect. 

“We want good relations with all our neighbours. We want good relations with Pakistan too, but not at the cost of this country’s pride, dignity and self-respect,” the Home Minister said.