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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor underscored that in its response to the Pahalgam terror attack, India had sent a clear message that it was not going to take terror lying down
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pays tribute at the National September 11 Memorial, during their visit as part of a multi-party delegation, in New York. (Image: PTI)
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said while he does not work for the government at the Centre but an opposition party, he is pleased about India’s measured and calibrated response to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.
Tharoor said a couple of days after the attack, he had written an op-ed on how India must “hit hard and hit smart” and he is pleased to say it is what transpired.
“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,” Tharoor said, delivering the remarks at the Indian Consulate.
The all-party delegation led by him comprises Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), GM 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.
Tharoor further outlined how precise and calibrated strikes took place on “9 specific known terrorist bases, headquarters and launchpads. Those included those of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Muridke, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Bahawalpur, responsible among other things for the murder of Daniel Pearl…”
He underscored that India sent a clear message that it was not going to take terror lying down. “…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 said.
The Congress MP gave a call for the world to come together to fight unitedly against terrorism and noted his team’s visit to the 9/11 Memorial as their first stop.
“It was obviously a very moving moment for us, but it was also meant to send a very strong message that we are here in a city which is bearing still the scars of that savage terrorist attack in the wake of yet another terrorist attack in our own country,” he said. “We came both as a reminder that this is a shared problem, but also out of a spirit of solidarity with the victims… It’s a global problem, it’s a scourge and we must all fight it unitedly.”
‘PAHALGAM INTENDED TO PROVOKE BACKLASH IN REST OF INDIA’
Describing the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack, Tharoor said it was “intended to provoke backlash in the rest of India”.
“It was a bunch of people going around identifying the religions of the people before them and killing them on that basis, which was clearly intended to provoke a backlash in the rest of India…” he said.
He gave examples of how in Jammu and Kashmir, from politicians to civilians, people came together in solidarity against the attack.
“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 added.
He also mentioned how a group called The Resistance Front (TRF) had claimed credit for the attack within hours. He said the organisation was known for some years to be a front for the proscribed LeT, designated as terrorist by the UN.
Tharoor said India had gone to the UN sanctions committee with information about TRF in 2023 and in 2024.
“Sadly Pakistan chose to follow its usual path of denial, in fact, Pakistan with the help of China succeeded in removing the reference to TRF from the press statement drafted in the Security Council of the UN two days later,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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