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‘We’ll go as deep into Pakistan as terrorists': Jaishankar's bold warning
External affairs minister S Jaishankar warned that India will retaliate against terrorism, regardless of its location in Pakistan.
In a reminder of sorts against future terrorist provocations days after the intense military conflict, external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday said India will not hesitate to strike back no matter how deep in Pakistan terror targets are.
In an interview with POLITICO during his official visit to Brussels for high-level trade talks with the European Union, Jaishankar said Pakistan is a country ‘very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy’.
Jaishankar's remarks come weeks after the military conflict between India and Pakistan stopped under a ceasefire ‘understanding’. The conflict was a result of Pakistan's unsuccessful drone and missile attack towards India after the Indian military carried out military strikes targeting Pakistani and PoK terror infrastructure under ‘Operation Sindoor’.
India's Operation Sindoor was a response to the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack, in which 26 people were gunned down by armed men found to have links with Pakistan.
'If they're deep, we'll go deep': Jaishankar
External affairs minister S Jaishankar issuing a stern warning from Brussels against future terrorist provocations, reiterating that India will not hesitate to strike back regardless of location.
"If they are deep in Pakistan, we will go deep into Pakistan," Jaishankar said in the POLITICO interview.
"It [Pakistan] is a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. That is the whole issue," Jaishankar was quoted as saying. When asked whether the conditions that triggered last month's hostilities still existed, he said, “If you call the commitment to terrorism a source of tension, absolutely, it is.”
Jaishankar also emphasised that India's fighter planes and missiles had inflicted extensive damage on the Pakistani Air Force, forcing Islamabad 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," POLITICO quoted Jaishankar as saying.
Jaishankar said the fighting stopped on May 10 “for one reason and one reason only". "On the 10th morning we hit these eight Pakistani, the main eight Pakistani airfields and disabled them," he said.
"And don't take my word for it, these are images which are available in Google. You can look at those runways and those hangars which have taken the hit," he added.
The military conflict halted on May 10 after Pakistan DGMO asked for the halting of hostilities.
