West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not addressing Pakistan’s reported threat to target Kolkata,
and said he should resign over his silence. Speaking at a poll rally in Nadia district’s Bethuadahari, Banerjee said Modi had criticised West Bengal during his election speeches but failed to respond to remarks made by Pakistan’s defence minister. “You (PM) target Bengal during election rallies, but when Pakistan talks about attacking Kolkata, you remain silent. You should resign,” she said. "Why did the prime minister not raise the issue during his rally in Bengal? When Pakistan's defence minister says they will attack Kolkata, why didn't the prime minister say that 'we will take strong action'?" she posed a day after Modi addressed a poll rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar.
Banerjee referred to comments by Khawaja Asif, who warned that Pakistan could strike Kolkata in response to any future actions by India. She questioned why Modi did not address the issue during his rally in Cooch Behar a day earlier.
“When Pakistan’s defence minister makes such statements, why didn’t the prime minister say that India would take strong action?” she asked.
Banerjee added that threats against Kolkata should be treated as seriously as threats against the country. “We do not accept threats to India, and we will not accept threats to Kolkata either,” she said.
Khawaja Asif on Saturday warned India that it would respond with a strike in Kolkata to any “future misadventures.” “If India tries to stage any false flag operation this time, then God-willingly, we will take it to Kolkata,” Asif said, while talking to reporters at his hometown of Sialkot, some 130kms from Lahore.
He claimed that there are reports that a false-flag operation has been designed through their own men or through the Pakistanis in their detention by laying down some bodies somewhere and saying “they were terrorists and had done so and so.” He, however, did not provide any evidence in support of his claim.
On Thursday, Asif said that Pakistan's response to any attack would be “swift, calibrated, and decisive.”
Asif was responding to the remarks by his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, who earlier said that any “misadventure” from India's neighbour in the prevailing situation would invite an “unprecedented and decisive” action.
The Pahalgam attack that took place on April 22 last year resulted in a four-day conflict between the two countries.
