A day after the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam left 26 people dead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to take stock of the situation and deliberate on the government's strategy.
Besides the prime minister, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were present at the meeting, along with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and senior bureaucrats.
Shah briefed the prime minister on the attack and discussed the measures to be taken in its aftermath.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also part of the CCS, could not attend the meeting as she is on her way back from the United States after cutting short her official visit in the wake of the terror attack.
Among those also present at the meeting were Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misry, besides the prime minister's two principal secretaries P K Mishra and Shaktikanta Das.
Last evening, terrorists had opened fire at the meadow of Baisaran a tourist hotspot near Kashmir's Pahalgam had opened fire. They had asked the tourists about their religion and then shot the men in the head.
Twenty-six people tourists from 14 states and two foreign nationals were killed in what was the deadliest attack in the Kashmir Valley since the 2019 Pulwama strike.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a terrorist group seen as a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has sent shock waves across the country.
Prime Minister Modi returned early Wednesday from Saudi Arabia, cutting short his visit. He held a meeting at the airport soon after his arrival where he discussed the J-K terror attack with Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Foreign Secretary Vikram Mistry was also part of the meeting.
Earlier in the day, Amit Shah visited Baisaran in Pahalgam, the site where terrorists struck on Tuesday evening, as well as the hospital where some of the injured were being treated.