Describing India’s attack on the Nur Khan base in the early morning of May 10 as a game changer, Singh said that it created panic in Pakistan, and their DGMO reached out to their Indian counterpart seeking a ceasefire.
On the question of suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) that Pakistan has described as “an act of war”, the Indian envoy said that the two key words that guided the treaty were never honoured and India, on the contrary, was always battling against terror attacks emanating from Pakistan.
“IWT was signed in 1960 and the preamble of the treaty includes two key words – goodwill and friendship….Over the past so many years what we have seen (is that) we were allowing water to flow and what was Pakistan doing – they were allowing terror (attacks) to come on the Indian side”, Singh noted.
“There was a lot of frustration among people that this cannot go on like this. Our Prime Minister said that blood and water cannot flow together, and that is the reason that we decided to put this IWT in abeyance”, he added.
“Terror must stop”, the Indian ambassador asserted, for a treaty like this to be operational, and Pakistan must stop cross-border terrorism.
“While IWT is in abeyance, another IWT is operational – Operation Sindoor is India’s War Against Terrorism”, he said.
Citing a long list of terror attacks in India that originated from Pakistan, Singh said that the “root cause are these two groups — Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba”.
The leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was behind the Mumbai attacks in which several Jews were also killed, continue to roam free, he noted.
“They need to do a very simple thing – when the preamble includes goodwill and friendship, they just need to hand over these terrorists to us”, the envoy stressed.
Pointing out that the United States recently extradited Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was involved in the Mumbai attack, the diplomat who has also served in Pakistan in the past, said that Islamabad could also do the same.
“When the US can hand over these culprits, why can’t Pakistan hand over? They have to simply hand over Hafeez Saeed, Lakhvi, Sajid Mir, and things will be over”, he emphasised.
Concerning Pakistan’s offer to investigate the Pahalgam attack, Singh dismissed it, describing it as a deflection strategy.
“What has happened to the Mumbai attack? What has happened to the Pathankot air base attack? What has happened to the Pulwama attack?” he questioned.
“We have given them dossiers after dossiers — we have given them technical inputs. America has shared with them evidence. Everything is there, but what have they done?”, he asked.
“Lakhvi, who was the main planner of the Mumbai attack, is still roaming freely. Hafiz Saeed, the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, planner and executioner of the Mumbai attack, is roaming freely. So we can’t believe them,” Singh said.
Contending that terrorism is a global menace, the Indian envoy called for greater cooperation among the countries faced with the challenge.
“At an international level all those countries, including India, Israel and many other countries that face the brunt of terrorism, we need to expand our diplomatic reach, we need to cooperate, we need to form a coalition against terrorism and most importantly against the supporters of these terrorist group,s” he proposed.
He concluded by saying that “our prime minister has made it very clear—very clear—that we have zero tolerance on terrorism. We are not going to accept this cross-border terrorism”.
