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As the tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate, the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Vikram Doraiswami, made it clear that New Delhi will respond "in the same light" if Islamabad retaliates. In an interview with Sky News, the Indian envoy said that his country is responding to Pakistani provocations "proportionally" and will continue to do the same in the future.
The tussle between India and Pakistan skyrocketed after 26 tourists were shot dead in Pahalgam, Kashmir, by terrorists with links to the Pakistani terror group. Two weeks after the incident, India responded to the provocation by conducting Operation Sindoor, in which they targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan.
On Thursday evening, a day after Operation Sindoor, India intercepted a coordinated attack by Pakistan in different parts of the country. While speaking to Sky News, Doraiswami said, "The original escalation is Pakistan's sponsored terror groups' attack on civilians".
Operation Sindoor was 'reasonable': Indian High Commissioner to the UK
In the interview, the Indian high commissioner to the UK insisted that India's strikes under Operation Sindoor against Pakistani terror camps were precise, targeted, reasonable and moderate," adding: "It was focused principally and solely on terrorist infrastructure."
"We made it abundantly clear that the object of this exercise was clearly to avoid military escalation," he said.
"A fact that was actually acknowledged - in a left-handed way of course - by the Pakistani side in terms of their own statements, which said the airspace hadn't been violated," Doraiswami furthered. The High Commissioner also rejected claims that Pakistan shot down Indian aircraft with Chinese-made fighter jets.
"If it satisfies Pakistan's ego to say that they've done something, they could have used that as an off-ramp to move on," he remarked. "Clearly they've chosen not to, and they've chosen to escalate the matter."
When asked about Pakistan's repeated threat of retaliation, Doraiswami said: "We're not looking for an escalation, but if Pakistan responds, as we have done, we will respond proportionally and in exactly the same light." He then reminded how Pakistan has been repeatedly violating the ceasefire at LoC.
"I do want to remind everybody: For the last 15 days, they've also opened artillery fire along the Line of Actual Control... That's led to civilian casualties," Doraiswami explained. On Thursday, the Indian defence ministry noted that stations at Jammu, Pathankot and Udhampur were "targeted by Pakistani-origin" weapons, and added "the threats were swiftly neutralised".
