Pakistan a terrorist state, should be isolated: Rajnath after Uri attack

New Delhi: Pakistan is a "terrorist state" and should be isolated, India on Sunday said launching a scathing attack on Islamabad in the wake of a dastardly terror strike at an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir in which 17 soldiers were killed.

In a strongly worded statement, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the terrorists who carried out the attack in the Army Brigade Headquarters in Uri were highly trained and heavily armed and vowed to hunt down those behind it.

Expressing his deep disappointment with Pakistan's continued and direct support to terrorism and terrorist groups, he said, "Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such".

After an hour-long reviewed meeting convened in the wake of the Uri incident, Singh, who postponed his scheduled visit to Russia and the United States, said that he has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the deliberations.

The meeting was attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, top officials of Ministries of Home and Defence and Army and paramilitary forces.

"There are definite and conclusive indications that the perpetrators of Uri attack were highly trained, heavily armed and specially equipped," he said.

The Home Minister said those behind this terror incident would be brought to justice.

Singh said he was deeply distressed by the terror incident and the loss of 17 soldiers.

"My heartfelt condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers. I pray for speedy recovery of the injured," he said.

Condemning the "cowardly" terror attack on an Army camp in Uri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured the nation that those behind the "despicable" strike won't go unpunished.

He saluted the soldiers who were martyred in the attack and said their service to the nation will always be remembered.

"We strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack in Uri. I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished," Modi tweeted on the incident in which 17 soldiers were killed and 19 injured.

He said he has spoken to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the situation in the wake of the terror attack.

Heavily armed militants stormed a battalion headquarters of the Army in North Kashmir's Uri town in the wee hours on Sunday, killing 17 jawans and injuring 19 other personnel in the terror strike in which four ultras were neutralised