India showed its capability, power during conflict with Pak: Union Minister

Kathua/Jammu | India demonstrated its capability and power to the outside world in the recent four-day conflict with Pakistan, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday, crediting the development strides made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rule.

Visiting areas in Kathua affected by Pakistani drone intrusions along the international border, Singh promised 600 ‘family bunkers' for residents and a centralised, technology-driven siren system in the district.

Indian armed forces on May 7 launched a missile strike on nine terror infrastructure targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation against the Pahalgam terror attack. The strike led to intense clashes for the next three days before the two countries reached an understanding to stop military action and firing.

“All this, I think, was a good opportunity for India to prove to the world where it is standing now and what our capabilities and power are,” the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office told reporters in the Hiranagar sector in his Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency.

Thanking PM Modi for the country's success over Pakistan, he said Hiranagar, located on the international border, witnessed the action of the S-400 missile system, which arrived in the country only after Modi took over.

“The morale of the people in the border villages was very high this time... During the 1971 and 1965 wars, the people had to dig trenches on their own. This time, people were confident that in this technology-driven warfare, the enemy ordinance would get destroyed in the sky before reaching them,” he said.

He said the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has been India's unwavering policy and the cornerstone of the BJP's stand.

“Modi himself reiterated that the only unfinished agenda is how to make the PoK an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir and India,” he said.

He said India has become strong under the leadership of Modi and its major achievements in the defence sector have come in the past 10 years.

“All the capabilities that India has acquired in the past 10 years came handy for the country,” he said.

Singh claimed that the previous Congress governments made it a government policy not to construct border roads.

But after Modi's arrival, roads have been built up to the zero line and the border residents are saying that they are better than the highways. while mobile towers have also been installed.

The minister said Kathua is the first district in the country where 2,000 modern bunkers, almost like one-room apartments having all kinds of facilities, were provided to the residents.

“The border residents used these bunkers and refused to move out of their villages, asserting that they are more comfortable and secure in these bunkers. And today, due to the demand, we will make 600 more such bunkers,” he said.

In the beginning, he said community bunkers were provided and “now we will construct family bunkers”.

Similarly, he said the people raised the issue of siren not being heard many times and “so, a centralised, automatic and technology-driven siren system will be established in Kathua district headquarters".

"By pressing the button from there, automatic sirens will start ringing in every border area, in every village,” he said.