Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday warned India’s “neighbours” not to mistake its desire for friendship with them for its weakness and said the country would give terrorists a befitting reply. “We will not bow before terrorists. We will give a befitting reply,” Sonia told an election rally here right on the Line of Control.

Addressing her first public rally after the terror strikes in Mumbai, Sonia Gandhi said India had been talking about brotherly relations with its neighbours and no one should construe this as a weakness.

The choice of rally venue as well as the words were significant. It was here three-and-a-half years ago that she had flagged off the first peace bus to roll on the reopened Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road which runs through this town. This biggest-ever confidence building measure between India and Pakistan in Kashmir had followed a ceasefire along the LoC in 2003, bringing peace and hope to thousands in the Valley.

On Wednesday, Sonia’s tone and tenor were stern. “Our country is united in the fight against terrorism. If terrorists think they are going to intimidate us then they are mistaken. We will never talk to those speaking the language of terrorism,” she said.

Aware that the audience was predominantly Muslim, Sonia reiterated that terrorism had no religion. “Terrorism is essentially against our democracy and progress,” she said and added: “And we will fight terrorism through the power of our democracy.”

Sonia congratulated the Kashmiri people for showing faith in democracy of the country. “By voting in large numbers, the Kashmiri people have exhibited their faith in democracy. They have understood that peace and prosperity can be achieved through this process,” she said.

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