"How did Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar escape?": Congress' Pawan Khera questions Centre's anti-terror operations

New Delhi [India], May 27 (ANI): Congress leader Pawan Khera on Tuesday slammed the Centre for not nabbing the persons involved in the major terrorist attacks in the country in the recent years including in Pahalgam and wanted to know the conditions on which the recent "ceasefire" between India and Pakistan reached.
"So far, we have not got answers to what happened to the terrorists in Poonch in 2023, in Ganderbal on 2 October 2024, in Pahalgam in April 2025, and where are the terrorists?" Pawan Khera asked in a press conference here.
"On what conditions did the ceasefire (between India and Pakistan) happen? How did Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar escape? ... There should be serious discussions on serious issues," he added.
Congress and other Opposition parties have been asking for a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack and the Operation Sindoor. They also demanded an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, stressing that India's response to the cross-border shelling from Pakistan was answered loudly and effectively, the Border Security Force (BSF) on Tuesday reiterated that they planned to strike the terrorists' launch pads near the Line of Control on the night of May 9 and 10.
Addressing a press conference, Shashank Anand (BSF IG), Jammu Frontier, emphasised that the Pakistani post opened fire on India's positions, for which it was already prepared.
"As a result of this preparedness, we inflicted heavy damage on several Pakistani posts during the cross-border firing. We did not suffer any losses ourselves," Anand said.
"On the night of May 8, when we carried out this operation, the enemy's morale in that area was visibly shaken. The next day, i.e., on May 9, Pakistan began unprovoked cross-border firing along the international border in the northern areas of Jammu, moving away from the Samba region. The BSF was already prepared for such a situation, and on May 9 and 10, the BSF launched heavy shelling on Pakistan's border belt. During this period, we had planned that if the opportunity arose, we would also strike the terrorist launch pads located near the international border," he said.
Operation Sindoor was India's decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Launched on May 7, Operation Sindoor led to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.
After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres, and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan.
After this, on May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced. (ANI)