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The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday responded to a recent statement made by the Pakistan Foreign Office, emphasising that Pakistan’s history of nurturing terrorism on an industrial scale makes it accountable for the consequences.
Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, during the weekly press conference, stated that Pakistan’s attempt to escape the consequences of its actions is futile, given its long history of supporting terrorism.
He highlighted that the terrorist infrastructure sites destroyed by India were responsible for the deaths of not only Indians but also many other innocents around the world.
“We have seen the statement made by the Pakistani side. That a nation which has nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale should think that it can escape the consequences is fooling itself. The terrorist infrastructure sites that India destroyed were responsible not only for the deaths of Indians but also of many other innocents around the world. There is now a new normal. The sooner Pakistan gets used to it, the better,” he said.
This comes after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar in his first interview since India and Pakistan’s cessation of hostilities, said that Islamabad “had no choice” but to launch strikes in “self-defence” following India’s May 7 cross-border attacks.
Dar referred to India’s strikes as a “war” and a “wishful attempt to establish its hegemony” and claimed that “We were very sure that our conventional capacity and capabilities are strong enough that we will beat them both in the air and on the ground.”
Jaiswal emphasised that there is a new normal in dealing with terrorism, and Pakistan needs to acknowledge and adapt to this reality.
He also emphasised the links of the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack and The Resistance Front- a terror group that owned up to their involvement in the attack twice.
“You know we have had several rounds of briefings and in these briefings we have also shared with you the kind of linkage we see between the perparators of the attack of Pahalgam, in particular The Resistance Front. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in his statement also made very clear the kind of evidence that we see and investigation is going on in this particular matter,” he said.
Jaiswal said that the TRF took responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice before rolling their statement back.
“You would have seen that TRF had taken responsibility and then second time again second day- twice they had taken responsibility and thereafter possibly at the behest of their handlers they rolled it back,” he said.
Jaiswal added that India is still pursuing listing of TRF in the United Nations by the United Nations Security Council by the UNCC 1267 sanctions committee.
“But TRF is one organization which is a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and you would understand that we have been pursuing listing of TRF in the United Nations by the United Nations Security Council by the UNCC 1267 sanctions committee. We’ll update you on as to how the investigation progresses in this matter,” he said.
Jaiswal said that India is sharing the details of the investigations of the attack with the UNSC, hoping that they would take note of it.
“Over the last two years or so, since 2023-24 we have been sharing information with the United Nations Security Council, the monitoring team of the sanctions committee as to why the terrorist TRF which is the front for Lashkar-e-Taiba should be listed as a terrorist entity. We will be also in few days will be sharing more details in this regard and hopefully security council 1267 monitoring team will take strong note of what we present, what we file and take due action against that is required,” he said.
Earlier on May 7, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri highlighted Pakistan’s role in removing references to the terrorist group The Resistance Front (TRF), which claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terrorist attack, from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) press statement issued on April 25. He recalled how India had earlier shared inputs regarding the TRF with the UN, bringing out its role as a cover for terrorists based in Pakistan. (ANI)
