Tharoor warns from US: Pakistan will ‘pay a price’ if Indians are killed across the border
Shashi Tharoor is leading a parliamentary delegation to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and the US to highlight India’s strong position against terrorism.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that following the Pahalgam terror attacks, India has established a new norm, making it clear that those in Pakistan cannot cross the border and kill Indian citizens without consequences, saying, “There will be a price to pay.”
Tharoor made these remarks during an interaction organised by the Consulate General of India in New York with select members of the Indian-American community, as well as representatives from prominent media outlets and think tanks. He said India’s message to Pakistan has remained consistent: “We didn't want to start anything.”
Tharoor is currently heading a parliamentary delegation to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and the United States, aimed at highlighting India's firm stance against terrorism and exposing Pakistan’s involvement in cross-border terror activities.
“We were just sending a message to terrorists. You started, we replied. If you stop, we stop. And they stopped. There was an 88-hour war. We look back on that with a great deal of frustration because it needn’t have happened at all. Lives have been lost. But at the same time, we look back on this experience with a steely and renewed sense of determination,” PTI news agency quoted Tharoor.
He reiterated India’s firm position on cross-border terrorism: “There is now got to be a new norm. No one sitting in Pakistan is going to be allowed to believe that they can just walk across the border and kill our citizens with impunity. There will be a price to pay and that price has been going up systematically.”
The multi-party delegation will also clarify in international forums that the recent tensions with Pakistan were a response to the Pahalgam terror attack, and not, as Pakistan claims, provoked by Operation Sindoor.
Other members of the delegation include Sarfaraz Ahmad (JMM), Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi (TDP), Shashank Mani Tripathi (BJP), Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Tejasvi Surya (BJP), and former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Sandhu.
The delegation arrived in New York on Saturday and is scheduled to visit Guyana next. It will return to the US on June 3.
‘India not interested in warfare with Pakistan’
Speaking about the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians — including one Nepalese national — were killed, Tharoor detailed the brutality of the assault. The Resistance Front initially claimed responsibility for the attack but later withdrew it. In response, India launched Operation Sindoor, a precision military action targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Tharoor condemned the targeted nature of the attack, highlighting how tourists were deliberately singled out based on their religion. He noted that India responded with precision through Operation Sindoor, striking at key terror hubs across the border. Recalling previous attacks linked to Pakistan-based terror outfits — including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and strikes in Uri and Pulwama — he said India’s patience had reached its limits.
Reaffirming that India is not looking for war, Tharoor stressed, “We are not interested, and we still remain absolutely clear, we are not interested in warfare with Pakistan.”
“We would much rather be left alone to grow our economy and put our people into the world” of the 21st century, he added.
He also noted that India has no territorial ambitions regarding Pakistan, saying, “We have no desire to have anything that the Pakistanis have. Sadly, we may be a status quo power. They are not. They are a revisionist power.
They covet territory that India controls, and they want to have it at any price.
And if they can't get it through conventional means, they're willing to get it through terrorism. That is not acceptable to us, and that's really the message that we are here to give all of you in this country and elsewhere,” Tharoor told the gathering.
He asserted that India has now drawn a firm line, saying, “India is determined now that there's got to be a new bottom line to this.”
Tharoor pointed out that over the years, India had tried every peaceful method — from filing international dossiers and raising complaints before sanctions committees to engaging diplomatically — but without any concrete outcome.
“Everything has been tried. Pakistan has remained in denial. There has been absolutely no conviction, no prosecution of terrorists, no attempt to dismantle the terror infrastructure in that country and the continued presence of safe havens.
So from our point of view, this is it. You do this, you're going to get this back. And we have demonstrated with this operation that we can do it with a degree of precision and with a degree of restraint that the world, we hope, will understand.
We have a right to self-defence. We've exercised that right. We have not done so irresponsibly…That's really the message I wanted to give you all today,” he said.
Clarifying his role, Tharoor said, “I don't work for the government, as you know, I work for an opposition party,” but added that shortly after the Pahalgam attack, he had written an opinion piece calling for a firm response:
“The time had come to hit hard, hit smart.”
“And I'm pleased to say that's exactly what India did.”
He concluded by saying, “India sent a clear message” — one that showed it would not tolerate terror and would respond decisively.
“But equally, that by delivering very precisely calculated, calibrated strikes on very specific targets, it was also sending a message that this was not meant to be the opening salvo in a protracted war, but just an act of retribution, that we were prepared to stop with that act.”
(With PTI inputs)
