Uri attacks: PM Narendra Modi meets defence top brass to discuss India's 'response'

New Delhi: Continuing his stand to take firm action against the perpetrators of the deadly Uri attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met with the Indian Army, Air Force Chiefs of Staff and Naval Vice Admiral to discuss the prevailing security conditions. Apart from Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh Suhag, Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha and the Naval Vice Admiral, the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was also present for the meeting at the Prime Minister's residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg here. Besides discussing the prevailing security situation in the country, discussions were also held on India's response to the Uri attack, in which New Delhi has held Islamabad responsible. Later in the day, the Prime Minister will fly to Kerala, where he will address party office-bearers in Kozhikode and is expected to break his silence on the government's response to the terror attack on the Army base. Immediately after the Uri attack, the Prime Minister had vowed in a strongly worded tweet that he will not let the perpetrators go "unpunished". Earlier, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had asserted that the Prime Minister's promise to punish those behind the Uri terror attack would not remain just words. Last Sunday, a militant attack on an army base in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, has claimed the lives of eighteen soldiers. While 17 soldiers died on Sunday, the army confirmed that one more critically injured soldier succumbed to his injuries on Thursday, pushing the death toll to 18. The armed militants lobbed grenades into their tents and barracks, while the soldiers were sleeping. The ensuing fire led to a large number of casualties. Twenty-eight injured soldiers are being treated at a military hospital.