Amsterdam, May 22: Outlining India's approach to counter-terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Operation Sindoor is continuing as India will respond if there is another terror attack like the one at Pahalgam and target terrorists if they are operating from Pakistan.

In an interview with Netherlands-based NOS, Jaishankar said that India hit terror sites named in the list released by the United Nations. He noted that the UN Security Council regularly releases a list, which mentions details regarding major terrorists and their place of residence and where they operate from.

When asked whether the operation is continuing, Jaishankar responded, "The operation continues because there is a clear message in that operation, that if there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22nd, there will be response, we will hit the terrorists. If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are. So, there is a message in continuing the operation. But, continuing the operation is not the same as firing on each other. Right now, there is agreed cessation of firing and military action."

The External Affairs Minister recalled that 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. He said that the attack was aimed at harming tourism, which is the mainstay of Kashmir's economy, and creating religious discord.

On the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jaishankar said, "We had the recent fighting between India and Pakistan. First of all, you got to understand what it was about, it started because it was triggered by very barbaric terrorist attack in the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after asertaining their faith and it was done in a way, in which it was intended to harm tourism which is the mainstay of Kashmir's economy and to create religious discord. Deliberately an element of religion was introduced and to understand that, you got to also see on the Pakistani side, you have a Pakistani leadership, especially their army chief, who is very driven by extreme religious outlook that the way. So, there is clearly some connect between the views that were expressed and the behaviour that was done."

Jaishankar said that The Resistance Front (TRF), a group created by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has taken responsibility for the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. He stated that India has identified the attackers and they are linked to LeT.

He recalled how India had informed the UN Security Council's 1267 Sanctions Committee about TRF in 2023, 2024 and 2024. He even showed the UN list to the journalist during the interview.

When asked whether India was able to catch terrorists who murdered tourists, Jaishankar responded, "I think we were able to identify who they were, because there were pictures of them. The attack, there was a body called The Resistance Front which took responsibility for the attack and that's a body which has been on our radar for a number of years. In 2023, 2024 and 2025, we brought this body to the attention to the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions committee and we said look we see this as a body created by the Lashkar. Lashkar is the main terrorist group in Pakistan, one of the two main terrorist groups and we can see the connection. Well before the April 22nd attack, we had already drawn this to the attention of the United Nations."

"We identified the people, the attackers, we know they are linked to Lashkar. We know the command centres of terrorist groups, its not a secret. If you look at UN Security Council, UN Security Council publishes regularly a kind of list of major terrorists, it looks something like this. It says the list established and maintained pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1267 whatever, now if you go through this list, these very places...these are well-known, notorious terrorists, they have a place of residence, it says they operate out of here. I mean there is a whole list of these guys. Now, these are the very places which are named in this and these are the places we hit on the 7th of May," he added.

Speaking to NOS, Jaishankar reiterated that India and Pakistan bilaterally agreed for cessation of firing on May 10 after Indian strikes "compelled the Pakistani military to accept that we need to stop firing at each other." He mentioned India targeted Pakistan's eight airbases, making them non-functional.

He said, "What happened was, after the terrorists struck, it was imperative that we have a response because lack of response you understand was impossible in such a situation."

When a journalist asked, "It has been tried in the past, not to respond."

In his response, Jaishankar said, "And we have seen the results. So, our government has been very clear. Okay, I accept that may not be the policy of the earlier government. But, our government is very clear, if there is such an attack, there will be response. The response was there, the response targeted these nine places, where the terrorist centres, as I said, they are all, the places are all shown in the UN list, I mean this is where the terrorists work and live and operate from. After that, the Pakistani military chose to fire on us and we responded, this went on four days and after that, the decisive day was the 10th of May."

"On the morning of 10th May, in response to an attack which they had launched on us earlier that morning, we had hit eight airbases. We basically made these bases non-functional, you know, we hit their runways, we hit their command centres. This is the kind of, you hit a runway, you make the airbase non-operational or you went after what is a air-defence command control system, this is the airbase close to Rawalpindi. That I think compelled the Pakistani military to accept that we need to stop firing at each other. At the moment, there is no firing and there has been some repositioning of forces accordingly," he said.

In response to the Pahalgam attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities.

(ANI)

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