Daijiworld Media Network – New York

New York, May 25: As part of India’s robust diplomatic push following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor declared that Pakistan will face an increasingly higher cost for supporting terrorism, underlining India's new no-tolerance posture toward cross-border attacks.

Speaking at an interaction with think tanks and the media at the Indian Consulate in New York, Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the US, said the Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 people, was aimed at disrupting normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir and inciting communal tension by targeting Hindus specifically.

“India has made it clear: no one in Pakistan can think they can cross the border and kill Indian citizens without consequences. That era is over. There will be a price — and that price is rising,” Tharoor asserted.

He recalled India’s escalating responses to past terror strikes, from the 2016 surgical strikes post-Uri to the 2019 Balakot airstrikes after Pulwama. "Now, we've gone further — across the international border. Our objective is not war, it’s deterrence,” he said.

He described Pakistan as a revisionist power, unwilling to abandon terrorism as a tool to claim Indian territory, and stressed India’s stand as a status quo power focused on peace and territorial integrity.

The Pahalgam massacre, carried out by The Resistance Front (a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy), failed in its objective to trigger communal unrest. “Instead of division, Indians stood united in the face of this atrocity,” Tharoor noted.

Tharoor also condemned China and Pakistan's role in blocking reference to the group at the UN Security Council and affirmed that India “hit hard and smart” during Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 to target nine terror hubs in Pakistan. He clarified that the strikes were retributive, not escalatory, and intended to send a message to terrorists — “You start, we reply. You stop, we stop.”

The delegation he leads is part of seven global outreach teams, dispatched by India to explain its revised counter-terror strategy and the rationale behind Operation Sindoor. Their itinerary also includes Panama, Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia, with another US visit planned for next month.

Meanwhile, in Bahrain, BJP MP Baijayant Panda, leading another delegation, declared that India had called Pakistan’s “nuclear bluff”. “Pakistan uses its nuclear capacity to shield terror, but we will no longer be blackmailed. Our strikes were meant to deter, not escalate,” he said.

In Qatar, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule’s delegation met Qatari lawmakers and conveyed India’s national outrage. Qatar reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism.
In South Korea, JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha interacted with the Indian diaspora, explaining that India's response to the Pahalgam attack was “measured, targeted, non-escalatory and principled.”

The Indian embassy in Seoul underlined that the delegations are united in affirming that dialogue cannot coexist with terrorism, and India's posture now reflects resolute, proactive diplomacy and decisive action against terror.