"Caught with red hands": Shashi Tharoor on evidence of Pakistan's involvement in Pahalgam attack

Washington DC [US], June 5 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the United States on Thursday, addressed questions about Pakistan's involvement in the Pahalgam attack, stating that India had convincing evidence but was not asked to provide it by any country.

He said this while responding to his son, Ishan's, questions about whether any country had asked the delegation for evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the Pahalgam attack at an event organised by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tharoor highlighted Pakistan's 37-year history of terror attacks accompanied by denials, citing examples like the Mumbai attacks and Osama bin Laden's safe house in Pakistan.

He said, "There were 3 particular reasons The first is that we've had a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan, accompanied by repeated denials. The Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan didn't know, allegedly, where Osama bin Laden was until he was found in a Pakistani safe house right next to an army camp in a Cantonment city. That's Pakistan. Mumbai attacks- They denied having anything to do with it. One of the terrorists was captured alive. His name, his identity, and his address are in Pakistan. Everything was revealed under interrogation. He told us where he was trained and what was done."

Tharoor further emphasised that Pakistan's past actions demonstrate its willingness to dispatch terrorists while denying involvement until caught.

"The US intelligence, as well as ours, recorded the chilling voice of the Pakistani handler giving minute-by-minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai, telling them where to go, and they were monitoring Indian TV and saying there are people hiding on the 3rd floor of that hotel, go and shoot them there. This kind of thing is going on. Your (American) sources recorded this too, so we know what Pakistan's all about. They will dispatch terrorists. They will deny they did so until they're actually caught with red hands. That's the first," he added.

Elaborating on the second point, Tharoor mentioned how the Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice before rolling back their statement.

He said, "Within 45 minutes or so of this(attack) happening, a group called the Resistance Front claimed credit. Who is the Resistance Front? They're a well-known proxy front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned organisation listed by the United Nations and the US State Department, which enjoys safe haven in the town of Muridke in Pakistan. India presented the evidence about the Resistance Front and its doings to the UN Committee on Terrorism in December 2023 and again in 2024. Uh, but the problem was that Pakistan was also a member of that committee. The UN did not list the Resistance Front, but its identity was known and publicised. These people then claimed credit within a time span."

India was pursuing the listing of TRF in the United Nations by the UN Security Council's UNCC 1267 sanctions committee.

He added, "The world hadn't even learned about this (attack) when they claimed credit, so that was itself a smoking gun. They repeated that claim 24 hours later, and having repeated that claim 24 hours later, then their handlers must have woken up to the gravity of this and told them to take it off their side, so they did, but the fact is the credit claim was on record and the world has seen it."

In the third observation, Tharoor said, "When the first strikes happened on the terrorist camps, funerals were conducted, including for members of key organisations, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The funerals were conducted, and photographs have emerged on social media showing Pakistani generals and police officers in uniform attending these funerals being conducted by relatives of these terrorists. So we're looking at 3 concrete pieces of evidence as far as India is concerned".

Tharoor asserted that India would not have taken action without convincing evidence, but the international community seemed to be already aware of Pakistan's role.

Tharoor further noted, "India is not the kind of country that would undertake a military operation without a solid basis. This was not some random terror attack. I must say our government counted 24 terrorist attacks in the last year emanating from Pakistan, but none of them required this kind of response. We dealt with them. We either got the terrorists or killed them, minimal damage, very little loss of life. We dealt with it. This showed all the hallmarks of a sophisticated, planned, deliberate operation with reconnaissance, with intelligence work, with a modus operandi worked out, this cynical exercise of asking people their religion, shooting them between the eyes. This is not an ordinary terrorist, some bearded fanatic blowing himself up outside a supermarket. This is not that. This is a serious quasi-military style operation, and it required a military response."

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