The Congress on Tuesday asked the Modi government to set up an inquiry commission in line with the Kargil Review Committee to examine the sequence of events in the Pahalgam terror attack and make recommendations.

The erstwhile Vajpayee government had set up the Kargil Review Committee on 29 July 1999, three days after the end of the Kargil War. The panel was set up to examine the sequence of events and make recommendations for the future.

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Demanding a “similar independent and comprehensive analysis and assessment of the Pahalgam attack,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh questioned:”Will the Modi Government now conduct a similar exercise on Pahalgam, notwithstanding the NIA probe?”

The government had ordered a probe into the Pahalgam terror attack by the National Investigation Agency, which has since begun the process of formally taking over the case in which 26 innocent tourists were mercilessly shot dead.

The Kargil Review Committee, which was chaired by India’s strategic affairs expert K. Subrahmanyam, whose son is now India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, had presented its report to Parliament on 23 February 2000, although some parts of it were still kept confidential.

Reiterating his party’s demand for a special session of both Houses of Parliament, Mr Ramesh also said: “Following the statements from Washington DC, the repeated demands by the Congress Party for an all-party meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and a special session of Parliament – which is now likely to take place after at least two and a half months – have now become even more urgent and immediate.”

Also repeating his party’s demand for an all-party meeting to be chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr Ramesh added: “Congress has been supporting Operation Sindoor since the very beginning…but before the PM’s address, Trump announced that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan. PM did not say anything on this.”

He asserted that the “PM had to answer a lot of questions, but he was silent… we want PM to call an all-party meeting…why is Trump making all the announcements?…what is the connection with India and US trade and stoppage of India-Pakistan war?…EAM, NSA and PM, all are silent.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Monday addressed the nation, his first since the India-Pakistan ceasefire was announced after four days of hostilities following Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory strike in response to the Pahalgam terror attack launched early May 7 to destroy nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.