"Pak Army Chief's Extreme Religious Outlook...": S Jaishankar On Pahalgam

The India-Pakistan military conflict this month - a tense 100 hours in which the two fired missiles at the other - was triggered by the "barbaric" April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told Dutch broadcaster NOS Wednesday.

And the Pahalgam terrorists, Mr Jaishankar said, who had targeted and murdered 26 people, mostly civilians, based on their faith, were driven by the "extreme religious outlook" of Asim Munir, the Pakistan Army chief who this week was promoted from General to Field Marshal.

A religious element was "deliberately introduced" to fuel existing tension, he said, seeming to call Munir - who, days before Pahalgam , referred to the "superior" Pakistani culture - as a fanatic.

The minister was replying to a question about United States President Donald Trump's claims - despite India's statements to the contrary - that he brokered the May 12 ceasefire. He stressed the cessation of hostilities was the result of a direct bilateral arrangement and was not influenced by any third party.

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"Look... first of all you have to understand what it was about. It started because it was triggered by a barbaric terrorist attack in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith," he explained.

"And it was done in a way intended to harm tourism, which is the mainstay of the economy, and to create a religious discord. Deliberately an element of religion was introduced. You also have to see there is a Pak leadership, especially the Army chief, that is driven by an extreme religious outlook."

"So, there is clearly some connect between the views expressed (by the Pak Army chief) and the behaviour (of the Pahalgam terrorists)," Mr Jaishankar told the Dutch broadcaster.

Separately, in an interview with De Volkskrant, a Dutch daily, Mr Jaishankar also dismissed talk the Pakistan government had no knowledge about terror camps operating in its territory.

After the Pahalgam attack India had red-flagged, once again, terrorist operations being supported, with money, military training, and logistics, by the Pak deep state. Sources within the Indian government told NDTV of a detailed 'terror trail' linking Pak to attacks worldwide.

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"We should not go along with the narrative that Pakistan does not know what is going on... the most notorious terrorists on the United Nations' 'sanctions list' are all in Pakistan," he told De Volkskrant, referring to individuals like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar, both living in Pak.

"They operate in the big cities... in broad daylight. Their addresses are known... their activities are known... their mutual contacts are known. So let's not pretend Pakistan is not involved."

"The Pak state is involved. The Pak Army is up to its neck in it."

The Pahalgam terror attack - executed by an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba - was the worst since 2019, when terrorists from the Jaish-e-Mohammed killed 40 soldiers in J&K's Pulwama.

India's measured response included a raft of non-military actions, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, a water-sharing agreement that irrigates nearly 80 per cent of Pak's farms.

The military response - Operation Sindoor - was launched early Wednesday (May 7) and involved precision strikes on nine terror camps across Pak and Pak-occupied Kashmir.

Pak retaliated by firing hundreds of drone and missiles at Indian targets, but most of these were shot down or neutralised by India's air defence network. Islamabad sought the ceasefire after Delhi's counterattacks disabled Pak air defence radars and over half-a-dozen air bases.

Since the ceasefire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made several emphatic statements, echoed by Mr Jaishankar in the Netherlands, about Op Sindoor being a still-active mission.

Mr Modi has warned Pak the Indian military stands ready to strike again in the event of another terrorist attack, and the Delhi now operates a new doctrine in the event of such assaults.

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Pakistan must, he stressed, disable terrorist infrastructure in its territory and return illegally occupied territory in Kashmir before there can be any further talks towards long-term peace.

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