Urging for peace but warning against provocation, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while addressing young professionals in the US as part of an all-party delegation, spoke about India’s restrained yet firm response to the recent Pahalgam terror attack. He said India showed patience but made it clear that its tolerance has limits when it comes to cross-border terrorism.

“We felt we had no choice but to respond,” Shashi Tharoor said, adding that India sought global understanding and solidarity after the attack. 

While stressing India’s commitment to growth and development, he issued a sharp warning to Pakistan: “If they allowed this to happen again, or they actually instigate it and direct it as this one seemed to have been, they will be hit back. We will hit back very hard… Do not take our patience for granted.”

Stating that India is focused on its economic growth to pull people above the poverty line, the Congress leader said “this is not something we would have wanted to spend our time on”. 

“But sadly, when this kind of thing is done to us, and for very cynical motives, we need to show that we will not allow people to cross the border and kill our citizens with impunity,” he said. 

He also warned that for such terror strikes “there will be a price to pay”, and if Pakistan continues to instigate or direct terror attacks, India will hit back hard.

While responding to a question about whether any country asked the delegation for evidence of Pakistan’s involvement, he stated that India had convincing evidence but was not asked to provide it by any country. Further, Tharoor highlighted three observations about Pakistan’s involvement in the terror attacks. 

For the first observations, he highlighted Pakistan’s history of terror attacks accompanied by denials, giving examples of the Mumbai attacks and Osama bin Laden’s safe house in Pakistan. He said that Pakistan denies involvement “until they’re actually caught with red hands”, he added. 

Elaborating on the second point, Tharoor mentioned how The Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice before rolling back their statement, stating that “the fact is credit claim was on record and the world has seen it.”

In the third evidence about Pakistan’s involvement, Tharoor said when the first strikes happened and funerals were conducted for members of organisations like the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, photographs emerged on social media showing Pakistani generals and police officers attending these funerals.

Tharoor further noted that India is not the kind of country that would undertake military operations without a solid basis. “The government counted 24 terrorist attacks in the last year emanating from Pakistan, but none of them required this kind of response,” he said.
 

(With ANI inputs)