New Delhi:
The recent confrontation between India and Pakistan was not “conflict in Kashmir”, the Foreign Minister K Jaishankar has said that such details would be like keeping the criminal and the victim of the Pahgam attack at the same level.
He said that the purpose of the “horrific” strike in Pahalgam was to create a “fear psychosis” to destroy the tourism sector of Jammu and Kashmir and meant that “religious discord was sown.
Dr. S Jaishankar commented on foreign relations in Berlin late last evening during an interactive session in the German Council.
When asked about “International implications of struggle in Kashmir”, he replied: “First, it was not a struggle in Kashmir, it was a terrorist attack.” “And a terrorist attack that is part of a pattern that has not only targeted the center region of Jammu and Kashmir, but also other parts of India,” Sayashankar said.
“It is very important to clarify because when you project it as a conflict, you are really putting the culprit and the victim at the same level, without meaning.” “So it was a frightening, especially cruel terrorist attack because it was a fear to create psychosis and destroy the tourism economy of Kashmir, which is the main basis,” he said.
The ministers of external affairs were in the third and final stages of their three-nation tour of Netherlands, Denmark and Germany in Berlin.
Under Operation Sindor, India made accurate attacks on nine terrorist infrastructure in early 7 May in response to the Pahgam terror attack on 22 April.
After Indian action, Pakistan tried to attack Indian military bases on 8 May, 9 and 10. Pakistani efforts were strongly responded to by the Indian side.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced on 10 May that India and Pakistan reached an understanding to prevent all firing and military functions on land, air and sea with immediate effect.
In his comment, Jaishankar said that India targeted the “terrorist headquarters and terrorist centers” in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam attack.
“What we were answering was terrorism and when we respond to such an attack, I think there was a lot of international understanding,” he said.
S Jaishankar also mentioned a statement issued by the United Nations Security Council, stating that those who did it should be brought to justice.
“And this is what we did on May 7. So we targeted the terrorist headquarters and terrorist centers. And our campaign is against terrorism,” he said.
“Now, in this case the terrorists were located at the next door in the country because many, terrorism was used as a kind of tool in the next door of that country,” he said.
“When it comes to terrorism, I think today is not really a country that will say what I have done or there is no country that would say what I was done,” he said.
S Jaishankar said that even Germany recognizes India’s right to defend itself against terrorism.
He also worked for more cooperation between India and Europe in Indo-Pacific.
“Indo-Pacific has its own set of issues, security is one of them. But I really point to a different concept that we give more options to countries in Indo-Pacific.” He said, “If there is only one option in Indo-Pacific countries, they are railroads on a certain path and they develop their dependence.”
He said, “A part of what we are trying to do in Indo-Pacific is to give different options to different countries in different domain-telecom, digital infrastructure, space-based applications or health options.”
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
