Washington DC: India has “every right to retaliate and defend itself,” former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Thursday and slammed Pakistan as “no country gets a pass for supporting terrorist activity.”
In a post on X, Haley said, “Terrorists launched an attack that killed dozens of Indian citizens. India had every right to retaliate and defend itself. Pakistan does not get to play the victim. No country gets a pass for supporting terrorist activity.”
Indian Armed Forces on Wednesday launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, carrying out precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), days after the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people on April 22. Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that the Pahalgam terror attack was “original escalation” by Pakistan and India responded in “controlled, precise, measured, considered and non-escalatory” manner through precise strikes on terror infrastructure early on Wednesday.
Addressing a joint press conference on Thursday, Misri said that India’s intention is not to escalate matters and is only responding to the escalation.
“Pakistan escalated on April 22, we are only responding to escalation. If further escalation, the response will be in the appropriate domain,” Misri said.
He said when talks were going on about the Pahalgam at the UNSC, Pakistan opposed the role of TRF (The Resistance Front).
“This is after TRF claimed the responsibility of the attack not once, but twice… Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh clearly said yesterday as well as today, that India’s response is non-escalatory, precise, and measured. Our intention is not to escalate matters and we are only responding to the escalation. No military targets have been targeted; only terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan has been hit,” Misri said. The Foreign Secretary said Pakistan’s reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism is rooted in a number of instances.
“I don’t need to remind where Osama Bin Laden was found and who called him a martyr…Pakistan is also home to a large number of UN proscribed terrorists and also to terrorists proscribed by many countries…You must have seen in the last few days, their Defence minister and former foreign minister accepted their country’s involvement with such terror groups,” he said. “It’s also odd that funerals of civilians are being carried out by coffins wrapped in their national flag, and state honours are being awarded,” he added.