New Delhi: Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi cutting short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to India due to Tuesday’s terror strike on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam?
According to certain reports, Modi may take off from Jeddah – where he landed on Tuesday morning – later in the evening, without co-chairing the second meeting of the Indo-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council, a forum set up during his last visit to the kingdom in 2019.
While no official confirmation has been received as yet, the situation in Kashmir is grave. Reports suggest that as many as 25 tourists may have been killed in the terror strike at a location known as India’s Switzerland.
While only two deaths have been confirmed so far, there are indications that several more may have succumbed to their injuries over the last few hours. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has called this the biggest such strike of its kind in the state.
Modi’s directions to Union home minister Amit Shah to rush to Kashmir is also indication that the death toll may go up beyond two. Several media groups have started reporting that at least 25 tourists – all of them non-Muslims – have been killed in the attack.
Latest reports suggest that two foreigners were also among those killed in the terror strike. Condolence messages have started flowing in from several friendly nations.
Modi is accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and external affairs minister S Jaishankar. Doval’s presence in the country at the moment is crucial.
Maybe, Modi would also consider the kind of bad press he got on being inaccessible during the 2019 Pulwama Attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead. The PM was then shooting an episode of Man vs Wild with renowned British adventurer Bear Grylls.
Some believe that the signing of MoUs with Saudi Arabia can wait at a time of national crisis.
