India exercised its right to respond, deter cross-border attacks: FS Vikram Misri

India’s military carried out “measured, non-escalatory [and] proportionate” strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to respond to the Pahalgam terror attack and to pre-empt and deter more cross-border assaults, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday.

Misri addressed a media briefing alongside women officers of the Indian Army and Indian Air Force hours after strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and PoK that largely bases of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and said New Delhi’s actions were in line with the UN Security Counci’s statement about holding perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the Pahalgam terror attack accountable.

The briefing began with a video that depicted several terror attacks – including the 2001 strike on the Parliament, the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing – that were carried out by Pakistan-based terror groups. The two women officers – Col Sophia Qureshi of the army’s Corps of Signals, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, a helicopter pilot of the IAF, gave details of terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan and reasons for the selection of targets for Wednesday’s strikes.

Misri said India had decided it was essential to bring to justice the perpetrators and planners of the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22, especially as there was “no demonstrable step” from Pakistan to act against terrorist infrastructure on territories under its control even after a fortnight.

“Instead, all it has indulged in are denials and allegations. Our intelligence monitoring of Pakistan-based terrorist modules indicated that further attacks against India were impending,” he said, reading from a prepared statement.

“Earlier this morning...India exercised its right to respond and pre-empt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks. These actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible. They focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India,” Misri said.

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India’s actions, he added, were in line with the UN Security Council’s press statement on the Pahalgam terror of April 25, which underlined the “need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice”.

Reports said India’s strikes were carried out across the international border on Muridke and Bahawalpur – both in Pakistan’s Punjab province - and across the Line of Control (LoC) on Kotli and Muzaffarabad in PoK. Pakistan’s chief military spokesman said eight people were killed and 35 injured, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan has “every right to give a befitting reply to this act of war imposed by India”.

During the briefing, Misri provided details of the involvement of The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy for the LeT, in the Pahalgam attack and the long record of the links of the LeT and the JeM to cross-border terrorism.

He said, “Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out [the] savage attack on Indian tourists at Pahalgam, murdering 26 people, including a Nepal national, and “causing the largest number of civilian casualties in a terrorist attack in India since the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai”.

“The attack in Pahalgam was marked by extreme barbarity, with the victims mostly killed with headshots from close range and in front of their families. Family members were deliberately traumatised through the manner of the killing, accompanied by the exhortation that they should take back the message,” he said.

“The attack was clearly driven by the objective of undermining the normalcy returning to Jammu and Kashmir. In particular, it was designed to impact the mainstay of the economy, tourism, with a record 23 million tourists visiting the [Kashmir] Valley last year,” he added.

The calculation was that harming growth in Jammu and Kashmir would keep it backward and “create fertile ground” for continued cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, while the manner of the attack was also driven by “an objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the nation”, Misri said. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled,” he added.

The TRF, which claimed responsibility for the attack, is a front for the UN-proscribed LeT and India gave inputs about the TRF in a report to the monitoring team of the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee in May and November 2024, highlighting its role as a “cover for Pakistan-based terrorist groups”, Misri said.

In December 2023, India informed the UN monitoring team about LeT and JeM “operating through small terror groups such as the TRF” and Pakistan’s pressure to remove references to TRF in the UN Security Council’s press statement of April 25 is “notable in this regard”, Misri pointed out.

Investigations into the Pahalgam attack brought out “communication notes of terrorists in and to Pakistan” and the TRF’s claim and its “reposting by known social media handles of the Lashkar-e-Taiba speak for themselves”, Misri said.

“Identification of the attackers based on eyewitness accounts, as well as other information available to law enforcement agencies, has also progressed. Our intelligence has developed an accurate picture of the planners and backers of this team,” he said.

The features of this attack tie in with Pakistan’s “long track record of perpetrating cross-border terror in India”, which is well documented and beyond question. Pakistan has a “well-deserved reputation as a haven for terrorists from around the world, with internationally proscribed terrorists enjoying impunity there” and Islamabad has “been known to willfully mislead the world and international forums, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), on this issue”, he added.

Misri cited the case of LeT operative Sajid Mir, wanted in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, who was “declared dead and then, in response to international pressure, brought back to life, found alive and arrested”, as the “most glaring example” of Pakistan’s tactics.

“The latest attack in Pahalgam has understandably generated deep anger in Jammu and Kashmir, and in other parts of India. Following the attacks, the government of India naturally responded with a set of initial measures relating to our engagement with Pakistan. You are all aware of the decisions that were announced on the 23rd of April.

Tensions between India and Pakistan soared after New Delhi unveiled a slew of economic, diplomatic and political punitive measures, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and the closure of the only operational land border crossing at Attari, over “cross-border linkages” to the Pahalgam attack. Pakistan launched its own counter-measures, including closing its airspace to Indian airliners and suspending all trade, and its armed forces conducted military exercises, including the test firing of missiles.