00:00That shouldn't be allowed. This is my son.
00:03Have any of your government interlocutors asked you to show evidence?
00:07So we know what Pakistan's all about.
00:10They will dispatch terrorists.
00:12They will deny they did so until they're actually caught with red hands.
00:16That shouldn't be allowed. This is my son.
00:20Ishan Therru of the Washington Post.
00:23Definitely asking a question in personal capacity.
00:26And mostly to say hi before you go off to your next engagement.
00:28I'm curious though, on this tour you've been on, various countries in the Western Hemisphere,
00:39have any of your government interlocutors asked you to show evidence of Pakistan's culpability in the initial attack?
00:47And what do you say to the repeated Pakistani denials of having any hand in the initial attack?
00:51Okay, well, I'm very glad you raised this, Ishan, though I didn't plant it, I promise you.
00:55This guy does this to his dad.
00:58Very simply, no one had any doubt, and we were not asked for evidence.
01:03But media have asked, and so you are speaking for your tribe in that in two or three places,
01:09media asked this question.
01:10Let me say very clearly that India would not have done this without convincing evidence.
01:16But there were three particular reasons I want to draw your attention to all of you.
01:19The first is that we've had a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan accompanied by repeated denials.
01:28I mean, Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan didn't know, allegedly, where Osama bin Laden was
01:33until he was found in a Pakistani safe house right next to an army camp in a cantonment city.
01:39That's Pakistan.
01:40That's Pakistan.
01:41Mumbai attacks.
01:42They denied having anything to do with it.
01:43One of the terrorists was captured alive.
01:44His name, his identity, his address in Pakistan.
01:47Everything was revealed.
01:48Under interrogation, he told us where he was strained, what was done.
01:51The U.S. intelligence, as well as ours, recorded the chilling voice of the Pakistani handler
01:56giving minute-by-minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai, telling them where to go.
02:02And they were monitoring Indian TV and saying, there are people hiding on the third floor of that hotel.
02:06Go and shoot them there.
02:07This kind of thing is going on.
02:08Your sources recorded this too.
02:10So we know what Pakistan is all about.
02:13They will dispatch terrorists.
02:15They will deny they did so until they're actually caught with red hands.
02:19Because that's the first.
02:21So I agree you're going to say, but that's circumstantial.
02:24Sure.
02:24Second point.
02:26The moment this happened, within 45 minutes or so of this happening, the terrorist attack,
02:31a group called the Resistance Front claimed credit.
02:34Who are the Resistance Front?
02:35They're a well-known proxy front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a band organization listed by the United Nations,
02:41listed by the U.S. State Department, which enjoys safe haven in the town of Muridke in Pakistan.
02:47The resistance front, evidence about the Resistance Front and its doings was presented by India
02:53to the U.N. Committee on Terrorism in December 2023 and repeatedly again in 2024.
03:00But the problem was, of course, Pakistan too is a member of that committee.
03:04The Resistance Front was not listed by the U.N., but its identity was known and publicized.
03:10These people then claimed credit within a time span.
03:14There were no media present when these killings took place.
03:17Most of the world hadn't even learned about this when they claimed credit.
03:19So that was itself a smoking gun.
03:22They repeated that claim 24 hours later.
03:25And having repeated that claim 24 hours later, then their handlers must have woken up to the gravity of this
03:30and told them to take it off their side.
03:32So they did.
03:33But the fact is, the credit claim was on record and the world has seen it.
03:37Third, when the first strikes happened on the terrorist camps, funerals were conducted,
03:44including for members of some of the key organizations, the Jaysh-e-Muhammad in particular and the Nashkar-e-Taiba.
03:53The funerals were conducted and photographs have emerged on social media showing Pakistani generals and police officers in uniform
04:01attending these funerals, being conducted by relatives of these terrorists.
04:07So we're looking at three concrete pieces of evidence as far as India is concerned.
04:12But finally, I can add to the mix, we also have intelligence services.
04:16They have been studying very carefully these terrorist attacks.
04:19They have identified at least four of the five perpetrators and they know who they are.
04:25In fact, I'm told and I don't have access to the direct intelligence information, but I've been reliably informed.
04:31They know that two of them are Pakistanis and the other two were locals who had exfiltrated,
04:37is the term, out to Pakistan for training 10 years ago and clearly were sent back for this mission this time.
04:43So it's on the basis of all of this put together that we said we know who did this and we will take action.
04:49And that's exactly what we did.
04:52I can assure you India is not the kind of country that would undertake a military operation without very solid basis for doing so.
05:01This was not some random terror attack.
05:03I must say our government counts 24 terrorist attacks in the course of last year emanating from Pakistan,
05:09but none of them required this kind of response.
05:12We dealt with them.
05:13We either got the terrorists or killed them.
05:15Minimal damage, very little loss of life.
05:17We dealt with it.
05:18This showed all the hallmarks of a sophisticated, planned, deliberate operation with reconnaissance,
05:25with intelligence work, with a modus operandi, worked out this cynical exercise of asking people their religion,
05:32shooting them between the eyes.
05:33This is not an ordinary terrorist, some bearded fanatic blowing himself up outside a supermarket.
05:40This is not that.
05:40This is a serious quasi-military style operation and it required a military response.
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