Lucknow, Apr 26 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday urged the Centre to take strict action against terrorism and asserted that the whole country is with them, according to a statement.

Yadav was in Kushinagar to pay tributes to former MLA Poornmasi Dehati and former district unit chief of SP Shukrullah Ansari, the statement read.

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Speaking to reporters, the SP chief said, "We hope that the government will take concrete steps. The incident of terrorist attacks on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, is very sad and condemnable. We all are with the martyr families from Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat, Haryana and other states of the country."

"The whole country wants that an incident like Pahalgam should not happen in future. The government has support in every way. It is hoped that the intelligence will not fail in future. There will be no lapse in security. Regarding this incident, everyone is saying that there was an intelligence failure of the government. There was no arrangement for the safety of the tourists," he added.

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Yadav said that the BJP government has taken all the decisions regarding Jammu and Kashmir on its own. They assured people that there would be no terrorist incidents, but it is sad that the Pahalgam attack happened even after that.

"The BJP government cannot escape its responsibility. We hope that the government will implement the assurances given regarding the security of the country, protection of borders and economy," he said.

Replying to a question, Yadav said that his party people visited Shubham Dwivedi's residence in Kanpur.

Shubham was among the 26 persons, mostly tourists, who were killed at Baisaran meadow near the resort town of Pahalgam in Anantnag district.

The SP chief said that he didn't personally visit Shubham's residence but this must not be seen as a matter of politics.

Demanding Rs 5 crore and a government job for the families of those martyred in the terrorist incident, he said that "the day the government gives Rs 5 crore and a government job, I will also go to the house of martyr Shubham Dwivedi of Kanpur."

Hitting out at the BJP, he said that BJP should not do politics on this incident. People who are trying to give it a different direction should be banned. He said that the kind of picture posted from the party's verified social media account also saddened their supporters.

In a strongly worded post dated April 23 on social media platform X, Yadav accused the BJP of "politicising" the attack and "lacking genuine empathy" for the victims and their families.

Though Yadav did not specify which advertisement he was referring to at that time, sources in the Samajwadi Party suggested that his comments were directed at social media posts shared by some official BJP handles, which claimed that the attackers in Pahalgam asked the victims their religion before opening fire.

He claimed, "Today, I was not allowed to land at Kushinagar airport. Earlier also I was not allowed to land at this airport. The weather was fine, but the weather of the government is getting spoiled. If I had landed, it would have got more publicity. By the way, the Samajwadi government had given the highest budget for the construction of this airport."

Referring to the Agniveer scheme, the SP chief said, "Our army is very brave, but the BJP government has demoralized the youth by implementing the Agniveer scheme in the Army. The youth wants to serve the country by staying in the Army. They want a permanent uniform and a permanent job. Many youths from villages of all the districts of the state including Kushinagar, and Ghazipur used to prepare on a large scale to join the army, but there is a disappointment among the youth due to the introduction of the Agniveer scheme."

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)