New Delhi: Issuing a categorical warning to Pakistan, India on Tuesday said all options will be on the table if there is another terror attack in the country. News agency P quoted official sources as saying that India will continue to insist on Pakistan to take concrete steps against terrorism and dismantle terror infrastructure.
Sources said since the Balakot air strike, the Indian government has been making all efforts to build maximum pressure on Pakistan to act against terrorism. They added that India has handed over to the United States the evidence with regard to the use of F-16 jets by Pakistan in retaliatory aerial combat. New Delhi is confident the US is looking into the issue of use of F-16s against India, they added.
Sources further said that India will not be deterred in its war against terrorism. “There has been no offer of mediation from any country. India has told the world that this is not an India-Pakistan issue, this is an issue of terrorism,” news agency quotes sources as saying.
The Indian Air Force has not taken any chances after the air strike in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26 and kept all its bases in the western sector on maximum alert. The air strikes had targeted the biggest training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group.
A day later, Pakistan unsuccessfully tried to retaliate by sending its jets into the Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir and target a number of military installations. Indian Air Force jets chased back the Pakistani F-16s, believed to be 10 in number, and downed one of them.
The Indian air strikes in Pakistan, termed a “non-military, pre-emptive” action, came after the deadly terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, J&K, on February 14 in which 40 soldiers were martyred.
Meanwhile, sources said recent interviews by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirm that the Pakistan government is in touch with JeM chief Masood Azhar and that there is no denial that Azhar is the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad. The sources added that “this makes India’s case to put Masood Azhar in UNSC 1267 sanctions list”.
On reports of Masood Azhar being unwell, sources said the Indian government takes such reports with a pinch of salt. “Earlier, we had seen similar reports on Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden as well. Our effort is to bring Masood Azhar to book,” they said.
With regard to Pakistan skipping the meet of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), sources said every OIC member country attended the plenary (where Indian minister Sushma Swaraj was the guest of honour) except Pakistan. “So, Pakistan stands isolated in what it calls its own backyard,” they stated.
Agencies
