'You Give Funerals To Terrorists...': Indian Envoy Shows How Pakistan Army Backs Terror
Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said Pakistan chose to escalate the matter and India would respond "proportionally" if Islamabad retaliates.
Vikram Doraiswami, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, came down heavily on Pakistan’s Army for giving state funerals to proscribed terrorists, adding that India will respond in kind if Pakistan chooses to retaliate.
While speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Doraiswami pulled out a photograph of US-sanctioned terrorist Hafiz Abdul Rauf, who was accompanied by uniformed Pakistani Army personnel during a funeral for terrorists killed in India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ strikes.
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“If you are going to give terrorists state funerals, what does that make of your system? Everybody knows that for the last 30 years, Pakistan has used this as a means of sub-critical warfare against India. If the international community really wants to be able to look at it and worry about it, the simple solution is to tell Pakistan it has an opportunity for an off-ramp," he said.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri used the same photograph of Pakistani officials attending funerals of terrorists, saying it contradicts the claim that those killed were civilians. He remarked that giving state funerals to terrorists may be a practice in Pakistan, but it was not something that made sense to India.
‘India Will Respond If Pakistan Retaliates’
Doraiswami said that in the last 30 years, the world should have compelled Pakistan to take down terror infrastructure on its soil, which it promised to do so but never did. He said the matter ends if Pakistan chooses to stop attacking India’s military installations.
The Indian envoy said the original escalation of tensions was done by Pakistan-sponsored terror groups on civilians in Pahalgam on April 22. He said India’s strikes in Pakistan were “precise, targeted, reasonable and moderate".
“We made it abundantly clear that the object of this exercise was clearly to avoid military escalation," he said. “A fact that was actually acknowledged – in a left-handed way of course – by the Pakistani side in terms of their own statements, which said the airspace hadn’t been violated."
He also said that despite having an opportunity to cool down tensions, Pakistan chose to escalate the matter. “We’re not looking for an escalation, but if Pakistan responds, as we have done, we will respond proportionally and in exactly the same light," he said.
India-Pakistan Border Clashes
Hostilities between India and Pakistan intensified on Thursday after Pakistan’s military attempted to hit military stations in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and some other locations with missiles and drones, all of which were neutralised by Indian armed forces.
Sirens blared and multiple blasts were reported in Akhnoor, Samba, Baramulla, Kupwara, and several other areas as the Indian military conducted an extensive overnight aerial surveillance operation along the border to deal with Pakistan’s unprovoked attack.
India unleashed retaliatory strikes at Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, as well as Lahore and Sialkot, late on Thursday after thwarting multiple attacks on Indian cities, while also downing a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet in Rajasthan.
Earlier in the day, India targeted air defence radars and systems at several locations in Pakistan, including Lahore and Rawalpindi. India destroyed the air defence system in Lahore, dealing a crippling blow to the Pakistan Army.
India on Wednesday launched Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to avenge the killing of 26 in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22. The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had claimed responsibility for the killings.
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