Ambassador Vinay Kwatra counters CNN’s anti-India propaganda, sets the record straight regarding ongoing military tensions between India and Pakistan
Indian ambassador to the US, Vinay Kwatra, meticulously countered CNN’s anti-India propaganda during a live interview on the news channel on Thursday (8th May). Kwatra corrected the CNN anchor who referred to the Indian union territories of Jammu and Kashmir as “Indian administered parts of Kashmir” by asserting that the entire Jammu and Kashmir, including the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), is an integral part of India. “First of all, I’m sorry, but let me correct you. The entire Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and unalienable part of India. The only issue to be resolved there is the return of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” said Kwatra.
Responding to the CNN anchor’s question about the ongoing military tensions between India and Pakistan, Kwatra set the record straight regarding India’s military action against terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK following the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack.
The Indian ambassador clarified that the military escalation between the two countries did not start with India and, in fact, it started with the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which was carried out by Pakistan-backed terrorists. He added that Operation Sindoor was India’s counter-terrorism operation in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack in which terrorists brutally killed 26 Hindu tourists after verifying their religion. “The strikes were intended to hold the terrorists accountable and deliver justice to the victims. Pakistan’s subsequent military action is them saying that they stand with the terrorists,” he said.
India’s response was precise, calibrated and measured: Kwatra
He said that India did not target the civilian and military locations in Pakistan and PoK and acted in a measured and calculated manner against the terror infrastructure. He described India’s response as “a very precise, calibrated, measured response to these terrorists, to their factories, to their integrated facilities, which they run out of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.”
Without mincing words, Kwatra called out Pakistan for sponsoring and harbouring terrorism on its soil and unabashedly denying it. “What it shows the world is that Pakistan has again decided to stand with the terrorists. Rather than take action against them, they are essentially lending them support. We wouldn’t be surprised if they are themselves involved in this,” Kwatra said.
When the CNN anchor asked Kwatra whether India is at war with Pakistan, in order to elicit a desired response, he calmly responded by saying, “We are at war with the terrorists. And we will bring justice to the victims and hold them accountable (terrorists),” Kwatra replied.
Thwarting the anchors’ attempts to label the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan as a religious war, Kwatra reiterated, “I think it is an Indian action against the terrorists. The ones who carried out the killings of the civilians are the frame of reference in doing these attacks (India’s military actions), and holding them accountable is holding terrorism accountable.”
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