Will strike deep into Pak if provoked by terror attacks: EAM Jaishankar
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar warned that India would strike deep inside Pakistan if provoked with terror attacks.
Accusing Pakistan of harbouring and training terrorists, Jaishankar said India would not tolerate the terror attacks, and there would be retribution.
Jaishankar, who is in Brussels as part of his week-long trip to Europe, reaffirmed India’s policy of zero-tolerance against terrorism.
“We are not going to live with it. So our message to them is that if you continue to do the kind of barbaric acts which they did in April, then there is going to be retribution, and that retribution will be against the terrorist organisations and the terrorist leadership,” Jaishankar told Politico on Monday.
“We don’t care where they are. If they are deep in Pakistan, we will go deep into Pakistan,” he added.
Tensions between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear-armed neighbours, escalated following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which claimed 26 lives. India responded by carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7.
On-ground hostilities, which lasted four days, concluded on May 10 after talks between the directors general of military operations from both sides led to an understanding to cease military actions.
Despite the cessation of recent hostilities, Jaishankar warned that the underlying issues remain unaddressed. He characterised Pakistan as “a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. That is the whole issue.” When questioned if the conditions that led to last month’s outbreak of conflict were still present, he responded, “If you call the commitment to terrorism a source of tension, absolutely, it is.”