‘37-year pattern': Shashi Tharoor on evidence of Pak involvement in Pahalgam terror attack
In a pointed rebuke to Pakistan's denials of involvement in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that India had acted only after gathering 'convincing evidence' of culpability, citing what he called a 37-year pattern of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York as part of an all-party Indian delegation visiting the United States, Tharoor responded to a question from his son, Ishaan Tharoor, a journalist with The Washington Post.
'Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post. Definitely asking a question in a personal capacity,' the younger Tharoor said, drawing laughter from the audience. 'Mostly to say hi before you go off to your next engagement.'
After the pleasantries, Ishaan posed a pointed question about the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people. He asked whether any governments had requested India to present proof of Pakistan's involvement and how Tharoor responded to Islamabad's denials.
Tharoor, the leader of one of the Indian delegations that went around the world, said India was not asked to produce evidence by any foreign governments. 'But the media has asked this question,' he said. 'Let me say very clearly that India would not have done this without convincing evidence.'
'There are three particular reasons I want to draw your attention to. First, when you have a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan accompanied by repeated denials… Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan allegedly didn't know where Osama bin Laden was, until he was found in a Pakistani safehouse right next to an army camp in a cantonment city, he added.
He continued: 'Second, in the Mumbai attacks, they denied having anything to do with it, but one of the terrorists was caught alive — his name, his identity, his address in Pakistan, everything was revealed, and he disclosed where he was trained. The US intelligence, as well as ours, recorded the voice of a Pakistani handler giving minute-by-minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai.'
'So, we know what Pakistan is all about.'
Tharoor's remarks come amid escalating diplomatic pressure following the Pahalgam attack, which was claimed within minutes by the Resistance Front — a group that Indian intelligence agencies have described as a proxy for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant organization officially designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations and the United States.
'Who are the Resistance Front?' Tharoor asked rhetorically during his remarks. 'They're a well-known proxy front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned terrorist organisation.'
The all-party delegation has visited several countries across the Western Hemisphere — including Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil — in an effort to present India's position on terrorism and explain its military response, Operation Sindoor, which targeted what India described as terror infrastructure across the Line of Control.
On Thursday, the delegation met US Vice President J D Vance at the White House for a 25-minute meeting. According to Indian officials, Vance expressed 'complete understanding, support, and respect' for India's measured reaction in the wake of the attack.
The Indian group includes lawmakers across the political spectrum — among them MPs Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya, and former Indian ambassador to the US, Taranjit Sandhu.
In his response to his son, Tharoor had added with a smile: 'I didn't plant it, I promise you. This guy does this to his dad.'
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