Give Army free hand: Paswan

Condemning the brutal killing of Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan, Union Minister RamVilas Paswan called for a tough action against the neighbouring country.

"The Kashmir issue cannot be resolved through talks. The time has come to give a befitting reply. The government must give our forces a free hand for the tit-for-tat and merciless response," Paswan told reporters during a Press meet organised by Press Club of India on Thursday.

"As far as the issue of Kashmir is concerned, it has crossed all limits. Our soldiers were beheaded, which will not be accepted. We should deal sternly with it like the surgical strike that we had carried out," the minister said.

"There is Pakistan-promoted terrorism. Who is dying? On the other side, children are killed, while this side our soldiers are attacked. After seeing the plight of our soldiers and their grief-stricken families, can we forgive them?" the minister asked.

"I started believing now that solutions will not come out by holding bilateral talks. Our army should be given more powers. I don't want any war but we should give a tit-for-tat response," he said.

Spelling out the achievements of the NDA government in three years, he said, "The corruption has been curbed, more transparency brought in and several programmes including the food law successfully implemented."