PRIME Minister Narendra Modi abruptly ended his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and decided to return to New Delhi on Tuesday night following a deadly terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Government sources said. Modi, who held bilateral talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, skipped an official dinner hosted on Tuesday to address the crisis, they added. He was originally scheduled to return to India on Wednesday night. Modi, who arrived in Jeddah on Tuesday afternoon, delayed a scheduled meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince by at least two hours on Tuesday evening to assess the situation in Kashmir.

 

The attack, claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group, prompted an urgent internal meeting at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Jeddah, attended by Modi, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and other senior officials. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Doval visited the Royal Palace earlier to brief the Saudi leadership on the sudden change in plans, sources said.

 

Sources said he is expected to chair a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security in Delhi on Wednesday to address the escalating situation in Kashmir. Earlier, in a special gesture, Modi’s aircraft was escorted by F-15 jets of Saudi Arabia when his special flight entered the airspace of the Gulf nation on Tuesday, officials said. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also released a video of the Saudi jets escorting Modi’s aircraft.