NEW DELHI: Pakistan alone can decide whether there is a further escalation of tensions with India as New Delhi has only responded to the “original escalation” of the Pahalgam terror attack and will respond to further actions by Islamabad, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said on Thursday.
Addressing a briefing on Operation Sindoor hours after India acknowledged that its armed forces targeted air defence systems at several locations in Pakistan in response to Pakistani strikes on military targets at 15 sites in India, Misri said most countries have recognised the “barbaric nature” of the Pahalgam attack as well as the restrained, measured and non-escalatory nature of India’s response.
“First of all, it is Pakistan that escalated on April 22. We are only responding to that escalation and...if there is an attempt at further escalation by Pakistan, it will be responded to in an appropriate domain,” Misri told the briefing that was also attended by Col Sofiya Qureshi of the army and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the air force, both clad in combat fatigues.
“And therefore, the choice is entirely that of Pakistan to make,” he said, making it clear that the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 civilians was the “original escalation.”
{{/usCountry}}“And therefore, the choice is entirely that of Pakistan to make,” he said, making it clear that the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 civilians was the “original escalation.”
{{/usCountry}}Misri cautioned that if Pakistan sought to use its fabricated allegations about the targeting of the Neelam-Jhelum hydropower project in PoK as a “pretext for targeting Indian infrastructure of a similar nature”, Islamabad will be “entirely responsible for the consequences”.
This was the second briefing by Misri and the two women officers since India’s armed forces launched Operation Sindoor early on Wednesday, targeting terrorist infrastructure at nine sites in territories controlled by Pakistan. The Pakistan government said on Wednesday it reserved the right to respond to the strikes, which killed 26 people and injured 46 others.
Misri declined to go into details on operational matters related to India’s military actions but responded to questions about disinformation purportedly spread by the Pakistani officials by saying that the neighbouring country’s leadership had been lying since its creation in 1947.
“This is a country where the lies had begun when it was born. When the Pakistan Army attacked Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, they told lies to the UN that they had nothing to do with it, the people who went in were tribals,” Misri said in Hindi.
“When our army and UN officials reached there, they saw the Pakistan Army had infiltrated [the region]. Then, they had to acknowledge that their troops were there. This journey started 75 years ago, I’m not surprised that this kind of disinformation is being indulged in,” he said.
Misri noted that most of the countries that have been in touch with India over the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent tensions have supported the government by condemning the incident and acknowledging the country’s “right to respond to these attacks in self-defense and...to ensure that there is no further escalation”.
He said most countries have recognised the “barbaric [and] unprecedented nature” of the Pahalgam attack and the restrained, measured and non-escalatory nature of India’s response.