Ambala (Haryana) [India], May 13 (HBTV): Haryana Minister Anil Vij lashed out at Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi over his demand for proof regarding the 2019 air strike carried out by the Indian armed forces in response to the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.

Vij alleged that Channi trusted statements from Pakistan over the Indian Army, calling him a ‘traitor’.

‘This traitor neither trusts nor believes the Indian Army. He believes what Pakistan says more,’ Vij told reporters.

On Friday, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi courted controversy by demanding proof of the Balakot air strike and claimed that he had been doing so from the beginning.

BJP MP Sambit Patra also launched a scathing attack on the Congress party following Channi’s remarks, saying that the party’s working committee behaved more like the ‘Pakistan Working Committee’ (PWC).

‘From the outside, they are the Congress Working Committee (CWC), but from the inside, they are PWC (Pakistan Working Committee),’ Patra said at a press conference.

He alleged that the Congress deliberately held a parallel press conference to cast doubt on the Indian armed forces' surgical strikes conducted in retaliation for the 2019 Pulwama attack.

‘A CWC meeting was held yesterday and some proposals were passed. Hathi ke daant dikhane ke aur, khane ke aur (a wolf in sheep’s clothing). Immediately after that, a press conference was held, and former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi said that the surgical strike had never been conducted after the Pulwama terrorist attack,’ Patra said.

Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa also condemned Channi’s statement and accused the Congress and the Gandhi family of consistently betraying the nation.

‘I strongly condemn the statement given by Charanjit Singh Channi... The Gandhi family and the Congress party have always betrayed the country. Sometimes they speak the language of China, and now by demanding proof of the surgical strike, it is clear they are speaking the language of Pakistan. Congress was never loyal to the country and never will be,’ Sirsa told reporters.

Reiterating his controversial position, Channi said at a press conference that he had always demanded proof of the strikes carried out by the Indian armed forces on Pakistani soil under the BJP-led government.

‘To date, I could not find where the (surgical) strike took place, where men were killed at that time, and where this happened in Pakistan. Will we not find out if a bomb is dropped in our country? They say that they did a surgical strike in Pakistan. Nothing had happened. Nowhere was a surgical strike seen. Nobody came to know... I have always demanded (proof). But today, people's wounds need to be tended to. We demand that the government do something. Tell people who they (perpetrators of the Pahalgam terrorist attack) are and punish them,’ Channi said.

(ANI)