Shashi Tharoor’s Son Questions on Operation Sindoor

News World Around

India's Military Response against Terrorism from Pakistan - Shashi Tharoor

Transcript

00:00That shouldn't be allowed, this is my son.

00:10Ishan Darur of the Washington Post.

00:13Definitely asking a question in your personal capacity.

00:16And mostly to say hi before you go off to your next engagement.

00:19Raise the mic.

00:20Mostly to say hi before you go off to your next engagement.

00:24I'm curious though, on this tour you've been on, various countries in the Western Hemisphere,

00:28have any of your government interlocutors asked you to show evidence of Pakistan's culpability in the initial attack?

00:36And what do you say to the reputed Pakistani denials of having any hand in the initial attack?

00:41Okay, well I'm very glad you raised this, Ishan, though I didn't plant it, I promise you.

00:45This guy does this to his damn.

00:48Very simply, no one had any doubt, and we were not asked for evidence.

00:53But media have asked, and so you are speaking for your tribe,

00:57and that in two or three places, media asked this question.

01:00Let me say very clearly that India would not have done this without convincing evidence.

01:05But there were three particular reasons I want to draw your attention to all of you.

01:09The first is that we've had a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan,

01:16accompanied by repeated denials.

01:17I mean, Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan didn't know, allegedly, where Osama bin Laden was,

01:23until he was found in a Pakistani safe house, right next to an army camp in a cantonment city.

01:29That's Pakistan.

01:30Mumbai attacks, they denied having anything to do with it.

01:33One of the terrorists was captured alive.

01:34His name, his identity, his address in Pakistan, everything was revealed.

01:37Under interrogation, he told us where he was trained, what was done.

01:40Pakistan, the U.S. intelligence, as well as ours, recorded the chilling voice of the Pakistani handler,

01:46giving minute-by-minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai,

01:50telling them where to go, and they were monitoring Indian TV and saying,

01:53there are people hiding on the third floor of that hotel, go and shoot them there.

01:56This kind of thing is going on.

01:58Your sources recorded this too.

02:00So we know what Pakistan's all about.

02:03They will dispatch terrorists, they will deny they did so until they're actually caught with red hands.

02:09And that's the first, so I agree you're going to say, but that's circumstantial, sure.

02:14Second point, the moment this happened, within 45 minutes or so of this happening,

02:19the terrorist attack, a group called the Resistance Front claimed credit.

02:23Who are the Resistance Front?

02:24They're a well-known proxy front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba,

02:27a band organization listed by the United Nations, listed by the U.S. State Department,

02:33which enjoys safe haven in the town of Muridke in Pakistan.

02:36The resistance front, evidence about the Resistance Front and its doings was presented

02:41by India to the U.N. Committee on Terrorism in December 2023 and repeatedly again in 2024.

02:49But the problem was, of course, Pakistan too is a member of that committee.

02:53The Resistance Front was not listed by the U.N., but its identity was known and publicized.

02:59These people then claimed credit within a time span.

03:04And there were no media present when these killings took place.

03:06Most of the world hadn't even learned about this when they claimed credit.

03:09So that was itself a smoking gun.

03:11They repeated that claim 24 hours later.

03:14And having repeated that claim 24 hours later,

03:17then their handlers must have woken up to the gravity of this and told them to take it off their side.

03:21So they did.

03:22But the fact is, the credit claim was on record and the world has seen it.

03:28Third, when the first strikes happened on the terrorist camps, funerals were conducted,

03:34including for members of some of the key organizations,

03:40the Jayash-e-Muhammad in particular and the Ashkar-e-Taiba.

03:43The funerals were conducted and photographs have emerged on social media

03:47showing Pakistani generals and police officers in uniform attending these funerals,

03:52being conducted by relatives of these terrorists.

03:56So we're looking at three concrete pieces of evidence as far as India is concerned.

04:01But finally, I can add to the mix, we also have intelligence services.

04:06They have been studying very carefully these terrorist attacks.

04:09They have identified at least four of the five perpetrators and they know who they are.

04:15In fact, I'm told, and I don't have access to the direct intelligence information,

04:19but I've been reliably informed.

04:21They know that two of them are Pakistanis and the other two were locals who had exfiltrated,

04:26is the term, out to Pakistan for trading 10 years ago

04:29and clearly were sent back for this mission this time.

04:32So it's on the basis of all of this put together that we said,

04:36we know who did this and we will take action.

04:39And that's exactly what we did.

04:41I can assure you India is not the kind of country that would undertake a military operation

04:46without very solid basis for doing so.

04:50This was not some random terror attack.

04:52I must say our government counts 24 terrorist attacks in the course of last year emanating from Pakistan,

04:58but none of them required this kind of response.

05:01We dealt with them.

05:02We either got the terrorists or killed them.

05:04Minimal damage, very little loss of life.

05:07We dealt with it.

05:08This showed all the hallmarks of a sophisticated, planned, deliberate operation

05:13with reconnaissance, with intelligence work, with a modus operandi,

05:17worked out this cynical exercise of asking people their religion,

05:21shooting them between the eyes.

05:22This is not an ordinary terrorist, some bearded fanatic blowing himself up outside a supermarket.

05:29This is not that.

05:30This is a serious quasi-military style operation and it required a military response.

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