Former Lok Sabha speaker P. A Sangma asked the government to go on the offensive against Pakistan following frequent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir as all parties were united against Pak-sponsored terrorism. “So far India is on the defensive. The country should go on the offensive against Pakistan as all parties are united on it,” Sangma said after attending the political affairs committee meeting on NCP’s Meghalaya unit.

“If America can destroy Taliban camps in Afghanistan, why cannot India destroy training camps in Pakistan?” the general secretary of the NCP asked and said the nation must have superiority over Pakistan. Demanding that the Centre implement the 25-point Kargil recommendation, Mr. Sangma said had the Vajpayee government followed the recommendations after the Kargil war, the present situation with Pakistan would have not arisen.

He pointed out that appointment of a full-time national adviser, which was one of the recommendations, has not been made yet. Mr. Sangma said the media had been reporting that the militants who were trained to fight along with Taliban would not sit idle and would strike against India in Kashmir.

NERCPA appeal to North-East militants 

The North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (NERCPA) has fervently appealed to all the insurgent groups in the region to shun violence and come to the negotiating table, so that the insurgency problems could be amicably solved  once for all. A resolution to this effect was adopted at the three-day sixth annual conference of the NERCPA.

The resolution said the NERCPA was acutely concerned with the consistent insurgency problem debilitating the region and therefore the Central Government should take concrete and urgent steps to start dialogue with all the insurgent groups operating in the region in a comprehensive manner and to facilitate the process the insurgent groups should respond, the resolution said.

An NERCPA release further said insurgency problem in the North-East region was a political problem rooted in the peculiar historical, geographical and political factors warranting a political solution.

The insurgency has been the primary impediment for rapid economic development of the region depriving it an congenial and conducive environment, it said, adding, peace and tranquillity was the prerequisite for development and investment which the region needs most to flourish with all its abounding natural resources. Six speakers and four deputy speakers from the North-Eastern States including Sikkim attended the conference.

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