Speaking at the Indian consulate in New York, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday talked about India’s measured response to the terror attack in Pahalgam and how the country stood united to counter Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism.
Tharoor is in the United States, leading an all-party delegation as part of the country’s diplomatic outreach after Operation Sindoor and a military conflict with Pakistan. Apart from Tharoor, the delegation includes JMM MP Sarfaraz Ahmad, BJP MPs Tejasvi Surya and Bhubaneswar Kalita, and TDP MP Ganti Harish Madhur.
Talking about India’s response to the devastating April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people died, most of whom were tourists, Tharoor highlighted the fact that while he was in the Opposition, he believed that India needed to respond strongly and that is what it did.
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“I don’t work for the government, as you know. I work for an opposition party, but I myself authored an op-ed in one of India’s leading papers, within a couple of days, saying that the time had come to hit hard and hit smart, and I’m pleased to say that’s exactly what India did,” said Tharoor.
He also said that while the intent behind the Pahalgam terror attack was to divide people, it brought people together in India, irrespective of their religion or any other divide.
“There was an extraordinary amount of togetherness cutting across religious and other divides that people have tried to provoke. The message is very clear that there was a malign intent… India, sadly, had no reason to doubt where it came from,” he said.
Shashi Tharoor on Operation Sindoor
India launched Operation Sindoor during the early hours of May 7 to avenge the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and targeted nine terror sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Speaking about the operation, Tharoor highlighted how precise and calibrated strikes took place on “9 specific known terrorist bases, headquarters and launchpads. Those included those of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke, Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bahawalpur, responsible amongst other things for the murder of Daniel Pearl.”
“India sent a clear message that it was not going to take terror lying down, it would answer, but equally that by delivering very precisely, calculated, calibrated strikes on very specific targets, it was also sending a message that this was not meant to be the opening salvo in a protracted war but just an act of retribution, that we were prepared to stop with that act,” he added.
With ANI inputs.