Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the US and some other nations post Operation Sindoor, has made it clear Pakistan can’t take India for granted and kill Indians without facing consequences.

Operation Sindoor, he said, marks a new normal in India’s approach to combating terrorism in response to Pakistan’s continued terrorist activities.

Advertisement

“There has now got to be a new normal. No one sitting in Pakistan is going to be allowed to believe that they can just walk across the border and kill our citizens with impunity. There will be a price to pay, and that price has been going up systematically,” Mr Tharoor said as the delegation led by him arrived in the US.

Tharoor said that India conveyed a clear message to Pakistan to stop hostilities, but the neighbouring country chose to respond with indiscriminate shelling, killing 19 civilians and injuring 59, including Carmelite nuns and Sikhs worshipping in a gurdwara.

“It was officially conveyed to Pakistan to stop that act. There is a regular hotline between the two directors general of military operations. The message conveyed that this was the intent, that it was pointed out that no military targets, no civilian targets, and no governmental targets had been hit, not even by accident. And that the message therefore had been delivered exactly and precisely to the terrorists and their handlers,” he said.

“Nonetheless, Pakistan chose to respond and respond, I’m sorry to say, with indiscriminate shelling across the border on the very first day and night, which sadly killed 19 civilians and injured grievously 59 others, including Carmelite nuns in a convent, Sikhs worshipping in a gurdwara. And others who happened to simply be in the line of fire because they lived in districts adjoining the Pakistani border,” he said.

However, after this incident, Mr Tharoor said, India retaliated by hitting 11 Pakistani military targets, including a well-known air base near Pakistan’s military headquarters.

“When this happened, India had no choice but to retaliate in kind. The matters got worse the next day as the Pakistanis followed up artillery shelling with a serious invasion of drones and missiles. India’s air defences were able to hold them off, but in turn India returned the compliment and on the night of 10th May, India hit 11 Pakistani military targets, including a rather well-known air base that’s just 1.5 kilometres away from military headquarters of Pakistan and Rawalpindi,” he said.

Mr Tharoor said that after this attack by India, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations called the Indian side and asked for cessation of offensives- something that India always supported.

The delegation led by him will visit the US, Guyana, Panama, Brazil, and Colombia. It comprises Mr Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Mr Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Mr G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Mr Shashank Mani Tripathi, Mr Tejaswi Surya, Mr Bhubaneswar K Lata (all from BJP), Mr 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.