Delegations to seek support to push Pakistan on rooting out terror
The seven delegations, which include parliamentarians, political leaders and former diplomats, are set to begin travelling from May 21
The seven all-party delegations that will fan out to Africa, Europe, North America and West Asia this week will engage interlocutors on forging a united front for combating terrorism and pressuring Pakistan to root out terrorist infrastructure on its soil, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The seven delegations, which include parliamentarians and leaders from across the political spectrum and former diplomats, are set to begin travelling from May 21 and will interact with lawmakers, politicians, think tanks and academics in capitals ranging from Abu Dhabi to Kinshasa and from Washington DC to Athens.
“The primary focus will be on countering all forms of terrorism, including cross-border terror, because of the death and destruction it has caused for India over the decades. This will be the message at all interactions with interlocutors in the 33 countries being visited by the delegations,” one of the people said on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, the people said, the delegations will inform interlocutors about the need to push Islamabad to root out terrorist infrastructure. The delegations will convey the message that Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership have done little to wind up groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) that have been involved in attacks on India for close to three decades, they said.
“It’s all very well for countries to take the moral high ground and call for de-escalation, as was seen during Operation Sindoor, but the more pertinent question is what these countries have done after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, the Pathankot attack in 2016 and the Pulwama suicide bombing in 2019 to get Pakistan to stop backing terrorism,” the person cited above said.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, striking terrorist infrastructure at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that killed 26 civilians. This triggered four days of intense strikes and counter-strikes by the two sides, using drones, missiles and long-range weapons, before they reached an understanding on halting military actions on May 10.
The Indian government has made it clear Operation Sindoor has not concluded, and the people said the delegations will inform their interlocutors about New Delhi’s “zero tolerance” policy for terrorism and the intention to retaliate against any further terror attacks.
The decision to include political leaders from opposition parties such as the Congress, DMK and Nationalist Congress Party-SP and leaders such as All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in the delegations is meant to counter the Pakistani military’s claims that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is engaged in a campaign of aggression and will even resort to “false flag operations”.
“After the Pahalgam terror attack, all political parties stood by the government’s actions and there was no divergence on the basic issue of combating terrorism. The composition of the delegations reflects this consensus and counters the Pakistani military’s propaganda,” a second person said.
A document circulated among media by the Pakistani military over the weekend repeated many false claims about the Pahalgam terror attack being a “false flag operation” and even contended Indian politicians had “serious questions” about the massacre. Indian officials have said The Resistance Front, a proxy for LeT, was behind the attack, in which civilians were targeted based on their faith.
The delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Eknath Shinde, which will travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia, will be the first to leave on May 21, followed by the delegation led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, which is going to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, and the delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi, which is travelling to Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia and Spain, which will both depart on May 22.
The delegation led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda, which is going to Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, will leave on May 23, while the delegation led by NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule, which is going to Qatar, South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt, will leave on May 24.
The delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, which is going to France, Italy, Denmark, the UK, Belgium and Germany, and the delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, which is travelling to Guyana, Panama, Columbia, Brazil and the US, will both depart on May 25. All the visits will be concluded within a 12-day period.
