Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], November 16 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that terrorism has been a persistent problem in India for over 30 years, and it must be dealt firmly and effectively.
Tharoor stated that the first and utmost priority is to ensure the safety of the country's people.
Reacting to Jammu and Kashmir National Conference's chief Farooq Abdullah's statement, Tharoor said, "Investigation is in process right now. It is not right for us to speculate on the outcome of the investigation. Terrorism, unfortunately, is a phenomenon that has been with us for more than 30 years now. In some ways, it began with Kashmir in 1989-1990. From there, it has got steadily worse; it has spread to Bombay, to Pune, to Delhi."
This comes after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which led to a new doctrine where any future terror strike would be considered an act of war and the recent blast in Nowgam Police Station, connected to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
On November 14, 2025, a blast occurred at Nowgam Police Station in Srinagar, killing nine people and injuring 32 others. The explosion happened during the sampling of explosives seized from the Red Fort blast case.
"We must ensure that we do everything we can to keep our people safe. That is the first and utmost priority. Secondly, when these things happen, conduct a thorough investigation to determine what happened. 1) Who did it, who is behind them and why was it done? 2) How do we prevent this kind of thing from happening again? What measures do we need to strengthen? To my mind, these are the principal objectives," the Congress MP asserted.
"What conclusions the investigators will come up with and what conclusions the Govt will draw from that, I think it's premature for us to speculate right now...Not everything can be reduced to a matter of war and peace. For us, terrorism must be dealt with firmly and effectively. But the larger goal of the development of the nation should not be lost sight of," he added.
His remarks followed Farooq Abdullah's statement that India and Pakistan should work towards improving their relations.
Speaking to ANI, the JKNC chief said, "I hope no such thing (Operation Sindoor) will happen. Nothing came out of it (Operation Sindoor). Our people died. Our borders were compromised. I hope both nations improve their relations. That is the only way. I want to repeat what Vajpayee Ji said, friends can be changed, but neighbours cannot."
Meanwhile in a significant breakthrough has been achieved in the Red Fort car blast case, with intelligence agencies uncovering a Rs 20 lakh fund trail linked to three doctors, Umar, Muzammil, and Shaheen.
Intelligence sources on Sunday said that the amount is suspected to have been routed by a Jaish-e-Mohammed handler through a hawala network.
Of this, around Rs 3 lakh is believed to have been spent on purchasing 26 quintals of NPK fertiliser, a nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium-based chemical compound used in agriculture, which is also capable of producing explosives used in the blast.
Officials further revealed that tensions had reportedly emerged between Dr Umar-un-Nabi and Dr Shaheen over the handling of the funds. Sources added that a key lead was obtained from Muzammil, helping investigators piece together the financial links behind the conspiracy.