Pahalgam terror attack an act of 'economic warfare'; India won't fall for Pakistan's nuclear blackmail: EAM

Calling the Pahalgam terror attack an act of economic warfare meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India has made it clear that it will not allow nuclear blackmail to prevent it from responding to terror emanating from Pakistan.

 

During a conversation with Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad, Jaishankar noted that over the years, India has been a victim of Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks and added that in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam attack, there was a sentiment in the country that enough is enough.

 

Pointing out that tourism is the mainstay of the economy in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the  Pahalgam attack was meant to disrupt and destroy this revenue stream. It was also meant to provoke religious violence because people were asked to identify their faith before they were killed, he said.

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The minister observed that terrorists based in Pakistan carrying out attacks against India do not operate in secret and these are terrorist organisations who have the equivalent of their corporate headquarters in the populated towns of Pakistan. "Everybody knows what is the headquarters of organisation A and organisation B and those are the buildings, the headquarters that India destroyed in Operation Sindoor." 

 

Further, he refuted US President Donald Trump's tall claim that he used trade to force India and Pakistan to agree to a ceasefire in the wake of Operation Sindoor. He said he was present with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when US Vice President JD Vance spoke to him over the phone.

 

"I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India. We did not accept certain things, and the prime minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do....He (Modi) indicated that there would be a response from us."

 

The external affairs minister is on an official visit to the US and will travel to Washington DC to participate in the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Tuesday. 

Defence