Leaders from 16 Opposition parties on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a special session of Parliament on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath.

Leaders from several parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), held a meeting to discuss the matter earlier in the day.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien told the media: “The government is responsible to the Parliament; Parliament is responsible to the people. That's why we are demanding a special session of the Parliament.”

Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda said the special session should address matters from the Pahalgam terror attack to Operation Sindoor to the United States announcing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan on May 10.

The letter they sent to Modi said: “There are serious questions facing the nation about the terror attack, killing of civilians in Poonch, Uri and Rajouri, the ceasefire announcements and the implications on our national security and foreign policy.”

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) was not a signatory to the letter. However, speaking about the party’s absence, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar was also with the Opposition leaders.

O’Brien added that the Aam Aadmi Party is also due to write a separate letter to the prime minister with a similar demand on Wednesday.

At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in Pakistani shelling in India’s border areas.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling.

India and Pakistan on May 10 reached an “understanding” to halt firing following the four-day conflict. The announcement by Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri came minutes after Trump claimed on social media that New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to the ceasefire.

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