Time had come to hit Pakistan hard and smart, that's what India did: Tharoor

Delivering a speech at the Indian Consulate in New York, Tharoor said that India's response to the horrific Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed, was "measured and calibrated" and they had targeted only terror bases and their headquarters in Pakistan.

Visit to 9/11 memorial

The all-party delegation members paid a visit to the 9/11 Memorial. Significantly, it was their first stop.

Describing the visit as a "moving moment" for all of them, Tharoor said that it was also meant to send “a very strong message that we are here in a city which is bearing still the scars of that savage terrorist attack in the wake of yet another terrorist attack in our own country”.

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The delegation visited the 9/11 memorial as a "reminder" that terrorism is a shared problem, but also out of a spirit of solidarity with the victims..., he said. "It's a global problem, it's a scourge and we must all fight it unitedly," he added.

"We are not interested in warfare with Pakistan We would much rather be left alone to grow our economy and pull our people into the world they are getting ready for in the 21st century. But, the Pakistanis, sadly, we might be a status quo power, but they are not...they covet the territory India controls, and they want to have it at any price. If they can't get it through conventional means, they are willing to get it through terrorism, and that is not acceptable to us," he said.

Purpose of visit

The Thiruvananthapuram MP also eloquently spoke on the purpose of the all-party delegation's visit.

Their idea is to speak to a cross section of public and political opinion in each of the countries they were going to about recent events which obviously trouble a number of people around the world, he said. Moreover, he added the fundamental underlying problem remains and it's important that we try and enlarge your understanding of our thinking and our concern about what's going on.

This is an opportunity to meet members of the executive in every country, meet members of their legislatures, meet big think-tanks and influential foreign policy experts, pointed out Tharoor, adding that at the same time, they will also interact with the media and the public in every one of these places.

Tharoor described the Pahalgam terror attacks on April 22 thus: "It was a bunch of people going around identifying the religions of the people before them and killing them on that basis, which was clearly intended to provoke a backlash in the rest of India, since the victims were overwhelmingly Hindu."

Spirit of solidarity

Tharoor went on to cite various examples of how in Jammu and Kashmir from politicians to civilians, people came together in "solidarity".

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"There was an extraordinary amount of togetherness cutting across religions and other divides that people have tried to provoke," he said. "The message is very clear that there was a malign intent...India, sadly, had no reason to doubt where it came from," he pointed out.

Moreover, Tharoor added that within one hour of the atrocity, a group called the Resistance Front had claimed credit.

The Resistance Front

The Resistance Front was known for some years to be a frontal organization of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is on the US designated terrorist list, as well with the UN sanctions committees. "And India had gone to the UN sanctions committee with information about the Resistance Front in 2023 and in 2024 and now sadly, it had acted in 2025 they repeated their claim the next day," he pointed out.

Sadly, Pakistan chose to follow its usual path of denial, he explained, adding that in fact, Pakistan with the help of China succeeded in removing the reference to TRF from the press statement drafted in the Security Council of the UN two days later.

India's clear message

However, Tharoor underscored that "India sent a clear message that it was not going to take terror lying down, it would answer, but equally that by delivering very precisely, calculated, calibrated strikes on very specific targets, was also sending a message that this was not meant to be the opening salvo in a protracted war but just an act of retribution, that we were prepared to stop with that act".

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Referring to the strikes on the "9 specific known terrorist bases, headquarters and launchpads" as precise and calibrated, he said that they included those of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke, Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bahawalpur, responsible amongst other things for the murder of Daniel Pearl...".

Zero tolerance to terrorism

The delegation will project India's national consensus and firm stance on combating terrorism in all its forms. and the country's zero tolerance against terrorism to the global community during their outreach.

The all-party delegation led by Tharoor consists of Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena) and former Indian Ambassador to the US,Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar K Lata from the BJP.