Shiv Sena praises Army strike, says ''crush the snake''

Mumbai: Praising the Indian Army`s surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, the Shiv Sena on Friday said the next step is to "crush the (Pakistani) snake totally, so that it never raises its hood again against India".

The Shiv Sena cautioned India must not remain lax after the surgical strikes.

"We have cut off its tail, but the hood remains. It does not suffice to merely leave a snake or scorpion half-dead; their (poison) stings must be removed or they keep striking. Now, the time has come to crush its head, which is the fountainhead of terror in the world," the Sena said in an edit in the party mouthpiece Saamana.

The Sena said after the September 18 Uri attack and the earlier one at Pathankot in Punjab, the whole country was seething in anger.

"The people demanded to know whether the sacrifices of our brave soldiers would go waste and if India would give a befitting reply to Pakistan or not," said the Sena, a ruling ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

It said that the Indian Army`s brave soldiers, however, annihilated the terror launch pads by crossing the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"This is called an act of valour and a tit-for-tat reply," the Sena said in the edit piece.

It said it was after a long spell of time that such a decisive action was taken against Pakistan.

"The Indian Army got a free hand and they proved themselves. We must not stop at this. If given similar freedom, the military can go and unfurl the Tricolor in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore," the Sena said.

On Thursday evening, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray called up Modi and congratulated him for the Army strikes.