India has stepped up its diplomatic offensive against cross-border terrorism, with multiple all-party delegations visiting key global capitals to highlight the country’s new doctrine of deterrence, following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.
Leading a delegation to the United States, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said India has demonstrated that Pakistan will face an increasingly steep cost for supporting terrorism, as Islamabad has consistently failed to take credible action against terror groups operating from its soil. Addressing media and think tanks at the Indian Consulate in New York, Tharoor said the recent Pahalgam attack was a calculated attempt to disrupt the return to normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the terrorists deliberately targeted Hindu pilgrims to provoke communal unrest in the rest of India.
“Pakistan is a revisionist power willing to use terrorism to seize territory it cannot obtain through conventional means,” Tharoor said, adding that India’s response through Operation Sindoor sent a strong message without escalating into full-scale conflict. He emphasized that India is not seeking war but is no longer willing to tolerate acts of terror without retaliation.
Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7, involved precision strikes on nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan-controlled territories. According to Tharoor, these were “smart, targeted” operations intended as retribution for the Pahalgam killings, not as the beginning of a broader military campaign. He noted that Pakistan’s response triggered four days of cross-border clashes, which ended after India hit Pakistani airbases on May 10. “We didn’t start this, but we had to respond. You stop, we stop—that’s the message,” he said.
Tharoor also accused Pakistan of persistent denial and inaction despite repeated diplomatic efforts by India, including after the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot attacks. He criticized the lack of convictions or dismantling of terror networks in Pakistan, and pointed to safe havens for groups like The Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, believed to be behind the Pahalgam attack. Tharoor also alleged that China and Pakistan worked together to remove references to the group from a recent UN Security Council statement.
The delegation, which is also visiting Panama, Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia, will return to the U.S. next month for meetings with members of Congress and other political leaders. During their visit, the delegation also paid respects at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, reaffirming India’s commitment to the global fight against terrorism.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Baijayant Panda, heading another delegation in Bahrain, echoed India’s hardened stance. He said Operation Sindoor had effectively exposed Pakistan’s “nuclear blackmail,” asserting that India would no longer be deterred by Islamabad’s nuclear posturing. “Our doctrine has changed. We’ve called their bluff. Retaliation will be precise and calculated—not escalatory, but effective,” Panda said. He also pointed out that over 50 UN-sanctioned terror groups and individuals continue to operate openly in Pakistan.
In Qatar, a delegation led by NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule conveyed India’s “national outrage” over the Pahalgam attack during talks with Qatari lawmakers. Qatar reiterated its zero-tolerance stance on terrorism.
Separately, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha led a delegation to South Korea, where they briefed the Indian diaspora on Operation Sindoor. The Indian embassy in Seoul noted that the delegation emphasized Pakistan’s role in orchestrating the Pahalgam attack and underlined that India’s military response was “measured, targeted, and non-escalatory.”
These diplomatic engagements are part of a coordinated outreach effort by New Delhi to present a united political front against terrorism and to build international consensus around India’s right to self-defense in the face of persistent cross-border threats.
