Warn Pak against 'hostile interference' in Punjab, Badal tells Centre
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has urged the Centre to tell Pakistan that the neighbouring country's ''hostile interference'' was jeopardising the peace process in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Badal on Tuesday night apprised Union Home Minister Inderjit Gupta of the situation in Punjab, where sporadic and targetted terrorist attacks were being carried out from across the border.
A Badal emissary has also briefed Prime Minister I K Gujral on the issue, said a Punjab government spokesman in New Delhi.
Badal said the general law and order situation in the state
was under control and there was an atmosphere of peace and amity
among the people. However, there were some elements who
were allegedly trying to disturb the peace established by the
Bharatiya Janata Party-Akali Dal alliance.
Badal said that Tuesday's bomb blast in Bhatinda could not be seen in isolation from similar blasts in the recent past in Delhi, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir and some other parts of the country.
He said there was a clear method and pattern in these events
and the governments in these states and the Centre had enough
information that some of these acts were engineered from across the
border.
The chief minister wanted the Centre to make it clear that, though this country wanted peace with its neighbours, particularly Pakistan, this peace could not be bought at the expense of innocent Indian lives.
Badal, who flew down to Bhatinda to supervise the relief operations, felt that vigilance of the borders should be intensified further.
Referring to the prime minister's peace initiative in the
subcontinent, Badal said Gujral's statesmanship should not be seen as a sign of India's weakness.
The state government would convene a meeting of the directors-general of police of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir shortly. This would be part of the state's exercise to tackle terrorism.
UNI
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