New York [US], May 25 (ANI): Congress MP and the leader of the all-party delegation Shashi Tharoor on Saturday (local time) emphasised that India’s Operation Sindoor against Pakistan was a message against terror and not a desire for warfare.
Tharoor explained that India has tried dialogue and diplomacy with Pakistan, but the country’s continued support for terrorism has left India with no choice but to take action in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said, “We are all together in this and we too should show a resolution to the world like America that we are absolutely against this kind of terrorist attack and we will take action. And if we remain empowered, all these were very important I think. After that we talked to the people here for about two hours. There were many people who were not Indians, but of American origin. There were various people of media backgrounds, some from universities and I think it is very important to listen to their questions and answer and explain it to them. My team answered their questions because it is important that the world knows India’s stance.”
Tharoor emphasised that India’s stance on terrorism is clear: zero tolerance. He stated that the delegation’s visit aims to convey India’s national consensus and firm stance on combating terrorism to the global community.
Tharoor, leader of an all-party delegation to the US, emphasized India’s solidarity with the global community in combating terrorism. The delegation visited the 9/11 memorial in New York to pay respects and convey India’s shared experience with the US in fighting terrorism.
“Look, we went to the Memorial of September 11 to send a message that New York also suffered due to the issue of terrorists twenty years ago, this is our experience as well. We want them to understand that solidarity is essential in this matter,” he said.
He emphasized that India has been a victim of terrorism for decades and will take action against terrorist threats.
Earlier, while addressing think tanks, academic leaders, and media in New York, Tharoor highlighted Pakistan’s denial of its role in terrorism, citing examples such as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and the Pathankot attack. He emphasized that Pakistan’s denial has been proven false, and the country has failed to take action against terrorist groups operating within its borders.
“I’ll just take you briefly through what happened. You may remember in 2015 in January there was an attack on an Indian airbase, a place called Pathankot. And our Prime Minister had just made a goodwill visit to Pakistan the previous month. On the 25th of December, he’d attended the birthday celebrations of then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose granddaughter’s wedding was on the same day, given gifts,” he said.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi was left astonished by the attack, he asked Pakistan to join hands in the investigation, after which the Pakistani side concluded that Indians did this to themselves!
“So when this happened, he was so astonished that he actually called the Pakistani Prime Minister and said, Why don’t you join the investigation? Let’s solve who’s doing this. And the Pakistani, you can imagine the horror of the Indian military establishment of this idea that Pakistani Investigators are going to come to an Indian airbase, but they came and uh they went back to Pakistan and said, all the Indians did it to themselves. That was the last straw,” he said.
Tharoor said that earlier too in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the terrorists killed 170 people, and a terrorist confessed to having Pakistani links.
“We’d already gone through the horrors of 2008 in Mumbai when 170 people had been killed. And the Pakistani denials at that time were laid bare not just by the fact that we caught one of the terrorists alive and his identity, his address, his family, etc. were identified in Pakistan, with the chilling voice of the Pakistani handler giving minute by minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai,” he said.
Tharoor said that even after having evidence, Pakistan had been in denial.
“So the evidence was there. They’ve been in denial and that denial was proven to be completely false, and as you know, thereafter, the Pakistanis claimed not to know where Osama bin Laden was until he was found in a safe house right next to an army cantonment in a city dominated by the army,” he said.
Tharoor said that in 2016 too, Pakistan attacked Uri and they still remain in denial.
“This is Pakistan and I’m afraid for us 2016 was the last opportunity for them to behave, to cooperate, to really show they were serious about ending terror as they claimed every time that they were, and since they did not do it in January, in September 2016. There was another attack in a place called Uri, also not far from the border, and this time India breached the line of control which we had rigorously observed throughout in every previous skirmish we had never crossed the Line of Control. We crossed it with a surgical strike in September of 2016,” he said.
Tharoor said that though things seemed to be calmer since then, Pakistan again attacked Pulwama in 2019, killing 40 Indians and breached the international border.
“That seemed to calm things down a bit, but unfortunately in January of 2019 there was another terror attack in a place called Pulwama killing 40 Indians at that point, and then India responded not just by breaching the line of control but also breaching the international border and striking with our air force a known terror training camp in a place called Balakot,” he said.
Tharoor highlighted that after years of failed attempts at diplomacy, India adopted a new approach with Operation Sindoor, striking the nine terror bases in Pakistan and PoJK in the intervening night of May 6-7.
“Now we have not just crossed the LOC, we have also crossed the international border. We have hit Pakistan in their heartland, and we have done so, as I say, only to send a message about terror. We are not interested and we still remain absolutely clear that we are not interested in warfare with Pakistan,” he said.
Tharoor said that India is interested in its own development, and would like to be left alone by Pakistan.
“We would much rather be left alone to grow our economy and pull our people into the world that they’re getting ready for in the 21st century. We have no desire to have anything. That the Pakistanis have sadly we may be a status quo power. They are not. They are a revisionist power,” he said.
Tharoor said that Pakistan covets Indian territory and wishes to acquire it by any means which is not acceptable by India.
“They covet territory that India controls, and they want to have it at any price. And if they can’t get it through conventional means they’re willing to get it through terrorism. That is not acceptable to us, and that’s really the message that we are here to give all of us, all of you in this country and elsewhere,” he said.
Tharoor said that India is now determined to draw a bottom line to this, as they have tried dialogue and diplomacy with Pakistan already.
“We are determined now that there’s got to be a new bottom line to this. We have tried everything international dossiers, complaints and sanctions committee, diplomacy, even this joint investigation attempt. Everything has been tried. Pakistan has remained in denial. There has been absolutely no conviction, no serious criminal prosecution, no attempt to dismantle the terror infrastructure in that country, and the persistence of safe havens,” he said.
Tharoor said that India has rightly exercised its right to self defence, and did not warrant a wider conflagration.
“So from our point of view, this is it. You do this, you’re going to get this back, and we have demonstrated with this operation that we can do it with a degree of precision and with a degree of restraint that the world we hope will understand. We have a right to self-defense. We’ve exercised that right. We have not done so irresponsibly and we have not done so in a way that would have warranted a wider conflagration,” he said.
The all-party delegation to United States, Guyana, Panama, Brazil, and Colombia led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor comprises of Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar K Lata (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena) and Former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
The delegation will project India’s national consensus and firm stance on combating terrorism in all its forms. They will carry India’s strong message of zero tolerance against terrorism to the global community during their outreach. (ANI)
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