"This kind of outrage could not go unpunished": Shashi Tharoor emphasises on 'new normal' in Colombia

Addressing the media at Bogota, Tharoor said, "India suffered a grievous terrorist attack on the 22nd of April... When this happened, of course, the world rose up to condemn the terrorist attack, but that was as far as it went. There was no action taken, not even by the country where these people had emerged from, Pakistan. Nobody was arrested, and there was no attempt at any prosecution. India decided that this kind of outrage could not go unpunished. On May 7, India chose to strike against known terror bases and launch pads."

Tharoor also showed the picture of Pakistani Army officials attending the funerals of terrorists after India's strike on their terror bases.

Tharoor said Pakistan provides terrorists a safe haven to continue their training.

"There (in Pakistan) was a well-publicised funeral of one of the terrorists on the sanctions list. That funeral was attended by uniformed senior military and police personnel from Pakistan. That is the extent of complicity that we are seeing between the terrorists who perpetrate crimes of this nature and those who finance, guide, train, arm, and equip them and do provide them safe haven to continue their training and their other awful deeds," he said.

Tharoor expressed disappointment with the Colombian government for expressing condolences over the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathising with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.

"We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," he said.

The Congress MP, who is leading a multiparty delegation to Colombia, stated that India is only exercising our right of self-defence.

"We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We're very happy to talk to Colombia about the circumstances in detail. We have, as I said, very concrete proof. In fact, when this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, Pakistan," Tharoor said.

Shashi Tharoor-led delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora. (ANI)