The crucial all-party meeting, called by the NDA government, began in the Parliament complex on Thursday evening. The meeting began with a two-minute silence for the 26 people who were killed in the Pahalgam terror attack.
Union Minister Rajnath Singh presided over the meet, while Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Health Minister JP Nadda were present in the meeting.
Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha JP Nadda, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were also present at the meeting chaired by Singh.
Several leaders from the opposition, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, NCP leader Supriya Sule and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav. Earlier, the opposition had demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi preside over the meeting.
Ahead of the meeting, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was seen talking to Kiren Rijiju near the entrance of the Parliament.
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju entered the meeting room along with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.
The all-party meeting comes a day after the government announced a host of measures targeting Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, where terrorists killed at least 26 people, mostly tourists, on Tuesday.
The decision to call an all-party meeting was taken on Wednesday, with Singh and Shah reaching out to various parties. There has been a convention for calling an all-party meeting following an incident with serious repercussions related to national security, as was seen after the Pulwama terror attack in 2019 or during the India-China standoff in 2020.