Bogota: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading an all-party delegation, has voiced his deep disappointment over Colombia offering condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan following Indian strikes in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Tharoor is leading the delegation to Colombia as part of India’s global outreach to expose Pakistan’s support for cross-border terrorist activities and India’s policy of zero-tolerance for terrorism.
At a media briefing in this Colombian capital city on Thursday, Tharoor elaborated India’s position on terrorism, spoke about Operation Sindoor and expressed disappointment over Colombia’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Tharoor “reaffirmed India’s stance on terrorism and expressed disappointment over Colombia’s response which has offered condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathizing with the victims of terrorism in India,” said BJP parliamentarian Tejasvi Surya.
“There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend,” he said in a social media post.
Surya said India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to deliver strong responses to terrorism.
The BJP Lok Sabha MP is part of the nine-member delegation that already travelled to Guyana and Panama before arriving in Colombia on Thursday.
Other members of the delegation include Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Shambhavi (LJP), GM Harish Balayogi (TDP) and former ambassador of India to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
The delegation called on former president Cesar Gaviria, the head of the Liberal Party – the largest single party in the Colombian Assembly – at his residence on Bogota. “He was strongly supportive of India’s fight against terrorism and undertook to say so publicly as well,” Tharoor said in a post on X.
During their stay in Bogota, the delegation will interact with Members of Congress, ministers and other key interlocutors in think tanks.
From Colombia, the delegation would travel to Brazil. It will be in the United States in the last leg of its five-nation trip.
India carried out precision strikes on nine terror infrastructures early on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10.
The Pakistani attempts were strongly responded to by the Indian side by inflicting heavy damages to a number of key Pakistani military installations including air bases, air defence systems, command and control centres and radar sites.
