India would strike deep into Pakistan if provoked by terrorist attacks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has warned, asserting that there will be retribution against the terrorist outfits and their leaders in case of barbaric acts like the Pahalgam attack.
Jaishankar, who is travelling to Europe a month after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, also said that Pakistan was training “thousands” of terrorists “in the open” and “unleashing” them on India.
“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,” he 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 escalated after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 which claimed 26 lives. India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7.
The on-ground hostilities from the Indian and Pakistan sides that lasted for four days ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10.
Jaishankar warned that the root causes of the conflict remain unchanged.
“It (Pakistan) is a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. That is the whole issue,” he was quoted as saying by the Politico.
When asked if the conditions that led to the outbreak of war last month were still in place, he said: “If you call the commitment to terrorism a source of tension, absolutely, it is.”
When asked about losses, Jaishankar said the relevant authorities would communicate on the matter when they were ready.
He said that India’s fighter aircraft and missiles had inflicted far more extensive damage on the Pakistani Air Force than vice versa, forcing Pakistan to sue for peace.
“As far I’m concerned, how effective the Rafale was or frankly, how effective other systems were — to me the proof of the pudding are the destroyed and disabled airfields on the Pakistani side,” he said.
“The fighting stopped on the 10th for one reason and one reason only, which was that on the 10th morning, we hit these eight Pakistani, the main eight Pakistani airfields and disabled them,” he said, adding that images are available in Google showing runways and those hangars which have taken the hit.
During his week-long visit to Europe, Jaishankar will also hold talks with leaders of the European Union, Belgium and France to boost bilateral ties and reaffirm India’s policy of zero-tolerance against terrorism. PTI
