Not Pak, you did it in Kashmir: Pawar on PM's 'hitting enemy in his home' remark

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has questioned the Narendra Modi-led government's assertion of "hitting the enemy in his home", claiming that such actions against terrorists actually took place in Kashmir and not in Pakistan.

During his Lok Sabha poll campaign, Prime Minister Modi had said "ghar mein ghus ghus ke marenge" (we will enter the terrorists' homes and eliminate them). He had made these remarks after the Indian Air Force targeted a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot following a suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14, which killed 40 people.

During a live chat with people on Facebook from his office in Mumbai, Sharad Pawar noted that the public used to like when PM Modi, during his poll campaign and rallies, said his government would enter the houses of enemies and kill them.

However, the Maratha leader was quick to claim that "the attacks that had taken place did not happen in Pakistan, but in Kashmir. And Kashmir is a part of India".

"Hence, whatever steps the (PM) Modi government took to put a check on the activities in Kashmir, that does not mean you entered Pakistan," he said. "People do not have information about the Line of Control (LoC) and the situation there. So, they felt some action had been taken against Pakistan," the former Union minister said.

He also alleged that systematic efforts were made to create an aversion towards a particular community. "Cultural communalism received an indirect boost in the country, which politically benefitted the BJP," Mr Pawar said.

"It is dangerous for the social harmony of the country that one community stands against another. Muslims are the second-largest community in the country after Hindus," the former Maharashtra chief minister added.