Jerusalem:
To form an international alliance against terrorism, India’s ambassador to Israel JP Singh has stressed that India’s Operation Sindoor against Pakistan is “stopped” and “no”, demanding that Islamabad should hand over to major terrorists, Hussain Rana.
Describing the leading events for India’s aggressive incidents, Mr. Singh said in an interview with Israeli TV Channel i24 on Monday that the operation was initially against terrorist groups in Pakistan.
“Terrorists killed people on the basis of their religion. They asked people to their religion before killing them and lost 26 innocent lives”, the Indian ambassador cited the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
“India’s operations were against terrorist groups and their infrastructure, for which Pakistan replied by attacking India’s military establishments”, he insisted.
Asked if the ceasefire is holding a break and if it is a ‘end of the case’ for India, then Mr. Singh replied saying that “the ceasefire is still holding, but we have made it clear that the operation sindoor has been stopped, it is not over yet”.
“The fight against terrorism will continue. We have set a new normal set and the new general is that we will follow an aggressive strategy. Wherever terrorists are, we have to kill those terrorists and we have to destroy their infrastructure. So it is still not over, but as we speak the ceasefire, it is still intact”, he said.
Describing India’s attack on Noor Khan base as a game changer on the morning of 10 May, Mr. Singh said that it caused panic in Pakistan and his DGMO was demanding a ceasefire for his Indian counterpart.
Pakistan on the question of suspending the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which Pakistan has described as “a war of war”, said that the two major words directing the treaty were never honored and on the contrary India was always struggling with terrorist attacks from Pakistan.
“IWT was signed in 1960 and the preamble of the treaty includes two major words – goodwill and friendship …. what we have seen in the last so many years (that) we were allowing water to flow and what Pakistan was doing – they were allowing terror (attacks) to enter the Indian side”, Mr. Singh noted.
He said, “There was a lot of disappointment among the people that it could not run in this way. Our Prime Minister said that blood and water cannot flow together and that is why we decided to put this IWT in Abhay.”
“Terror should be stopped”, the Indian ambassador claimed to be vocal for such a treaty and Pakistan should stop cross -border terrorism.
He said, “While IWT is in consenting, another IWT is on – Operation is India’s war against terrorism”, he said.
Citing a long list of terrorist attacks in India arising from Pakistan, JP Singh said that “The root causes are two groups-the two groups-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tabiba”.
He said that the leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, in which many Jews were also killed, continue to roam free, he said.
“They need to do a very simple thing – when the preamble involves goodwill and friendship, they just need to hand over these terrorists”, the messenger insisted.
Stating that the United States recently extradited Tahwur Hussain Rana, who was involved in the Mumbai attack, the diplomat has also served in Pakistan in the past, said that Islamabad can do the same.
“When America can hand over these convicts, why can’t it be handed over to Pakistan?
In terms of the proposal to investigate the Pahalgam attack of Pakistan, Mr. Singh rejected it, described it as a deflection strategy.
He said, “What has happened to the Mumbai attack? What happened to the Pathankot Air Base attack? What happened to the Pulwama attack,” he questioned.
He said, “We have given him a doseer after the doseer – we have given him technical inputs. America has shared evidence with him. Everything is there but what he has done”, he asked.
“Lakhvi, who was the chief planner of the Mumbai attack, is still roaming freely. The Mumbai-based planner and Jallad, Lashkar-e-Tabiba’s chief Hafiz Saeed is roaming freely. So we cannot believe them,” said Mr. Singh.
Saying that terrorism is a global threat, the Indian messenger called for more cooperation among the countries faced with a challenge.
“At an international level, all countries including India, Israel and many other countries that suffer the brunt of terrorism, we need to expand our diplomatic access, we need to cooperate, we need to form an alliance against terrorism and most importantly against supporters of these terrorist groups”.
He concluded by saying that “Our Prime Minister has made it very clear-very clear-we have zero tolerance on terrorism. We are not going to accept terrorism across this border”.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
