The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday slammed remarks by India’s Minister for External Affairs Subhramanyam Jaishankar regarding how India had the “right to strike Pakistan”, stating that New Delhi’s “bellicose punchlines” showed its “sheer frustration following an unsuccessful military adventure”.
The Indian minister’s comments come in the wake of a four-day military conflict between the nuclear powers last month.
Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Jaishankar said when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintained that ‘Operation Sindoor’ was not over, it was a clear message that “we reserve the right to go after terrorists anytime, anywhere if they have done harm to us”.
According to the FO statement, Pakistan rejected Jaishankar’s comments, stating that top diplomats should aim to promote peace and harmony rather than producing “bellicose punchlines”. Criticising his conduct, the FO said the tone and tenor of a foreign minister “should be commensurate with his dignified status”.
The FO further said: “For the last several years, India has been engaged in a malicious campaign to mislead the international community through a fictitious narrative of victimhood.
“However, India’s continued anti-Pakistan diatribe cannot hide its sponsorship of terrorism beyond its borders, nor can it cover up the state-sanctioned oppression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
It added that instead of pointing fingers at others, India should “introspect on its own involvement in terrorism, subversion and targeted assassinations.”
Reiterating that Pakistan believed in peaceful coexistence, the FO urged India to “stop concocting narratives” to justify its aggressive actions in the wake of the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir.
“The narrative emerging from India betrays sheer frustration, following an unsuccessful military adventure against Pakistan,” the FO said. “Indian leaders would be well-advised to improve the standard of their discourse and discard their obsession with Pakistan.”
The FO stated that while Pakistan pursued peace, it would defend its sovereignty against aggression such as that by India last month.
“History will judge not by who shouted the loudest, but by who acted the wisest,” the statement concluded.
A day prior, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman termed India a “belligerent power spinning out of control” in response to Jaishankar’s remarks.
“Pakistan cannot be responsible for every attack in India, which is home to a dozen insurgencies,” she said, adding that “no lessons seem to have been learnt from the encounter with Pakistan, and no evidence provided”.
Pakistan and India have been at odds since the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir, which saw the killing of 26 tourists. New Delhi, without any evidence, blamed Islamabad for the attack, while the latter strongly denied the claims and offered a neutral probe. The two nations then fought a four-day conflict before the US brokered a ceasefire on May 10.
Earlier this month, Pakistan launched a broad-based engagement campaign to present its perspective on the recent conflict with India to the world and counter New Delhi’s unproven allegations. As part of its global outreach, a delegation — including Rehman — has visited the United States, is currently in London and will also head to Brussels.
