Washington, DC [US], June 5 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the United States (US), on Thursday criticised Pakistan's repeated denials of its involvement in terrorism and highlighted Colombia's decision to withdraw a statement issued after Operation Sidoor, terming it a "fine gesture" following diplomatic engagement by the Indian side.
"In Colombia, they had issued a slightly disappointing statement at the time of Operation Sidoor in which they issued heartfelt condolences to the victims in Pakistan, and we were taken aback...," Tharoor said during an interaction at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC.
He added, "In Colombia, I took the Director for Asia in the ministry aside and told her we have received this well and if something could be done. The next morning, they withdrew that statement."
Tharoor said distant countries often lack context when reacting to conflicts and may issue routine remarks.
"For us, you can see it as a fine gesture on their part. They do some things sometimes without particularly knowing the full context and details. Everyone is in favour of peace. If we are far away from a particular conflict, you will tend to just issue something fairly routine, and then when you have the context explained and the whole circumstances explained, you could see the better of it," he said.
He further noted, "I think that was again one of the benefits of this delegation going up because if we hadn't, that might have been the last word on the record..."
Referring to Pakistan's record on terrorism, Tharoor said, "...We have got a pattern since 1989 of repeated attacks, every one of which was denied by Pakistan and every one of which has been traced to Pakistan. The most famous or notorious cases have been the Mumbai 26/11 attacks."
"Pakistan's denials are on record, and then one of the terrorists was captured alive, and his address in Pakistan, where he lived, who trained him, everything was out. It is no longer possible for Pakistan to keep on denying," he added.
Speaking on the recent attack in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "When the Pahalgam attack happened within less than an hour, the Resistance Front claimed credit. They repeated that claim 24 hours later on their website."
Earlier today, Tharoor stressed that there can be no dialogue with Pakistan with "a gun pointed at our head." He warned that the action taken by India now can be taken again if Pakistan does not control terror elements on its soil.
The delegation led by Tharoor arrived in the US on Wednesday. It includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, and Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from the BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora.
The all-party delegation arrived in the US after concluding their visit to Brazil. The delegation aims to brief key stakeholders in the US on Operation Sindoor, India's diplomatic initiative launched to counter terrorism and disinformation following the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, which claimed 26 lives and injured several others.