New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Tuesday briefed members of multi-party delegations headed to various world capitals on key issues to be raised—from Pakistan’s role in terror attacks in India over the decades, to India’s recent military and non-military responses including Operation Sindoor and the pausing of the Indus Waters Treaty.
During the day, Misri briefed members of three out of seven delegations that will visit the United Arab Emirates, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia and Russia. The remaining delegations will be briefed over the next few days.
MPs who attended the briefing told ThePrint that the Centre will also arm them with dossiers packed with evidence on Pakistan’s role in cross-border terrorism and terrorist attacks in India. Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai, who is a member of the delegation that will be led by DMK MP Kanimozhi, told ThePrint that they were asked to “expose the lies of Pakistan” before the world.
“We were told to highlight how Pakistan pushed to get the name of terror group The Resistance Front removed from a statement of the United Nations Security Council after the 22 April Pahalgam attack. It shows Pakistan’s involvement in the attack,” Rai said.
Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who was among those who were briefed, told reporters that the foreign secretary reiterated that no country brokered the truce between India and Pakistan, dismissing US President Donald Trump’s claims about Washington’s role.
Sources said the MPs were not specifically told about whether they will meet MPs or diplomats or hold media interactions in the countries they will visit. One MP said Indian embassies in the destination countries are drawing up their itineraries.
Misri is learnt to have told the MPs that New Delhi has evidence that Pakistan “continues to harbour, train, fund, provide technical support and deploy UN-designated terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba and their proxy groups to launch attacks in India”.
He suggested that the MPs also display pictures of the funeral of the terrorists killed in Operation Sindoor that were attended by personnel of the Pakistan armed forces, sources said. On New Delhi’s move to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, the MPs were told India had—even before the Pahalgam attack—approached Pakistan to renegotiate the treaty keeping the changed circumstances, including climate, in mind, but Islamabad had “stonewalled” its requests.
Former BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia, a member of the delegation led by Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, told ThePrint: “Pakistan is spreading lies across the world. It is our responsibility to explain to other nations through meetings with legislators, business persons, intellectuals as to what really happened in Pahalgam and the events that followed. India has always had the stand that this fight is not against common citizens. Terrorists came, executed their terrorist activities and our fight is against them.”
Sources said officials also told the MPs that Pakistan did not act against terrorists despite India handing over evidence including DNA profiles and call records in the aftermath of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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