New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned on Thursday the recent terrorist attacks in France, including the heinous attack inside a church in Nice, and asserted that India stands with the country in the fight against terrorism.
An attacker armed with a knife killed three people at a church in the city of Nice on Thursday. On October 16, a French schoolteacher named Samuel Paty was beheaded for allegedly showing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in his class. The suspect, a Chechen-origin teen, was shot by the French police.
India on Wednesday had strongly deplored the personal attacks against French President Emmanuel Macron following his tough stance on radical Islam, calling it a violation of the most basic standards of international discourse.
In a strongly-worded statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also condemned the brutal terrorist attack that took the life of a French teacher in a gruesome manner and asserted that there is no justification for terrorism for any reason or under any circumstance.
“We strongly deplore the personal attacks in unacceptable language on President Emmanuel Macron in violation of the most basic standards of international discourse,” said a release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Indian foreign secretary Harsh Shringla arrived in Paris on Thursday for the first leg of a three-country tour in Europe. He will be in the French capital for two days to meet with interlocutors from the French government, as well as people who work at think-tanks.
Several Muslim-majority countries have denounced remarks by French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, defending the use of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a French school classroom. The caricatures are seen as blasphemous by Muslims.
Leaders including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Imran Khan have lashed out at Macron. Most recently, Malaysia’s former premier Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday Muslims have a right to “kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past” but he did not approve of the killing of a French teacher over his use of cartoons of the Prophet.
(With agency inputs)