Congress MP Shashi Tharoor gave a call for the world to come together to fight unitedly against terrorism in the US.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor praised India’s strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation and said that India ‘hit hard and smart’. Leading a multi-party delegation to five countries as part of India’s global anti-terrorism outreach under Operation Sindoor, Tharoor also highlighted India’s strong yet measured and calibrated response to the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed, during a statement made in New York on Saturday.
India hit hard and hit smart: Tharoor
While speaking at the Indian Consulate in New York, Tharoor said, “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.”
He outlined how precise and calibrated strikes took place on “Nine 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…”
‘… clear attempt to provoke communal violence
Tharoor said the attack was carried out by militants who identified victims by their religion before killing them, in what he called a clear attempt to provoke communal violence. “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, since the victims were overwhelmingly Hindu,” he said.
He gave various examples from the Indian society of how in Jammu and Kashmir from politicians to civilians, people came together in solidarity. “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.”
The Congress MP further emphasised that within an hour, the Resistance Front claimed responsibility. He reminded the audience that this group is linked to the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba and had already been flagged to the UN in 2023 and 2024. “Sadly, Pakistan chose to follow its usual path of denial,” he said, noting that 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.
We are not interested in warfare with Pakistan
Tharoor made it clear that while India responded firmly to terrorism, it does not seek escalation or armed conflict. “We are not interested in warfare with Pakistan. We would much rather be left alone to grow our economy and pull our people into the world they are getting ready for in the 21st century. But, the Pakistanis sadly, we might be a status quo power but they are not…they covet territory India controls, and they want to have it at any price. If they can’t get it through conventional means, they are willing to get it through terrorism, and that is not acceptable…”
The all-party delegation 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.
(With ANI inputs)
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