The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on the state of India-Pakistan relations. The committee, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, met in Parliament House in the afternoon and was briefed by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, PTI reported.
The committee members praised the armed forces and described the IAF air strike as “glorious and heroic”. The parliamentary panel asked the government to “go all out to explain” to the international community the reasons behind India’s decision to carry out the air strike on Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp, PTI reported quoting unidentified officials.
Gokhale reportedly told the committee that the Pakistan Air Force’s attempts to target the military installations in India were thwarted by the Indian Air Force.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is also a member of the committee, but was not present at the meeting on Friday.
India-Pakistan ties have deteriorated following a terrorist attack on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14, which killed 40 jawans. The Jaish-e-Mohammad group claimed responsibility for the attack, following which India asked Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators. However, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded “actionable evidence” from India.
Indian Air Force jets entered Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early on February 26, and targeted a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot. In retaliation, Pakistan F-16s violated Indian airspace on the following day, and downed a MiG-21 jet. Pakistan also took the pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, into custody. He will be released on Friday.
The Indian armed forces, in a joint press conference on Thursday, alleged that Pakistan intended to target India’s military installations in Kashmir. They presented evidence that the aircraft India had struck down was an F-16, and said that Pakistani bombs fell on the campus of Indian military installations, but did not hit them.
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