Pahalgam Terror Attack: Shiv Sena (UBT) Raises Questions on Intelligence Failure, Offers Support to Tough Response

New Delhi, April 24: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Thursday raised questions about intelligence failure and accountability over the Pahalgam terror attack, while offering its support to any strong response the government gives to the horrific incident that left at least 26 civilians, mostly tourists, dead. Party leader Arvind Sawant wrote to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju ahead of the all-party meeting called by the government on the attack, as he informed him about his and Sanjay Raut's inability to attend it.

Raut is a Rajya Sabha MP of the party. He said both of them were on an official tour as members of parliamentary committees. Sawant, the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, shared the text of his communication with Rijiju and later provided a revised version of it. Pahalgam Terror Attack: 2 Pakistani Laskhar-E-Taiba Terrorists, 1 Jammu and Kashmir Local Operative Identified as Men Behind Terrorists Attack.

He said, "Let it also be known that while there will be questions about intelligence failures and on why and how this attack happened, we see this meeting as a medium to offer our support to any strong response the government chooses to give to this barbaric and dastardly attack on our country." He added, "The question about accountability, too, not for this meeting but soon after, also stems from the same sense of patriotism that binds us together, seeking to better serve our country. "

The Mumbai South MP asserted they stand united and hoped that the government, on behalf of the whole nation, will give such a "brutal and strong response to the terrorists and to those who harbour them" that they won't even think of touching India's citizens ever again. He urged Rijiju to allow him and Raut to join the meeting via a video link. Pahalgam Terror Attack: All-Party Meet Convened by Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah Begins in Srinagar To Discuss Fallout of Terrorists Attack.

The regional party is part of the opposition INDIA bloc. The Congress, too, in a resolution demanded a comprehensive analysis into the intelligence failures and security lapses that enabled such an attack in a Union Territory, which is directly under the purview of the Union home ministry.