Wuzhen (China), February 27: India did not wish to see further escalation of the situation and would continue to act with responsibility and restraint, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told China and Russia here on Wednesday after the country targeted a terrorist training camp in Pakistan as she asked all nations to show “zero tolerance to terrorism”.
Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan for the February 14 Pulwama terror attack at the Russia, India and China (RIC) meeting here, she defended India’s airstrikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan, saying it was pre-emptive action aimed at stopping further attacks by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Forty Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in a suicide attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14, sparking outrage in the country.
Following the incident, India on Tuesday bombed and destroyed the JeM’s biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80 km from the Line of Control (LoC) early on Tuesday, killing a “very large number” of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.
“The recent dastardly terrorist attack on our security forces in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir is perpetrated by Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based and supported terrorist organisation proscribed by the UN and other countries. We lost more than 40 personnel from the CRPF,” Swaraj said.
“Such dastardly terrorist attacks are grim reminder for all the countries to show zero tolerance to terrorism and take decisive action against them,” she said at the meeting attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavarov.
She said that after the Pulwama terrorist attack, Pakistan instead of taking seriously the call for the international community to act against the JeM and other terror groups denied any knowledge of the attack and outright dismissed claims by the JeM.
“In the light of continued refusal of Pakistan to acknowledge and act against terror groups on its territory and based on credible information that the JeM is planning other attacks in various parts of India, the Government of India had decided to take pre-emptive action,” she said.
“The target was selected in order to avoid civilian casualties,” she said.
She said India’s action was not a military operation and the aim was to dismantle the terror infrastructure.
“No military installations were targeted. The limited objective of the pre-emptive strike was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of the JeM in order to pre-empt another terrorist attack in India,” she said.
“India does not wish to see further escalation of the situation and will continue to act with responsibility and restraint,” she said. PTI
