Indian parliamentary team meets Priti Patel, highlights Operation Sindoor

AN ALL-PARTY Indian parliamentary delegation, led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, met with the shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel and her team on Sunday to share India's resolve in countering cross-border terrorism. The Members of Parliament highlighted how Operation Sindoor is part of India’s approach to fighting terrorism.

In a post on X, the Indian High Commission in the UK said, "The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation met with Shadow Foreign Secretary @pritipatel and her team to share India's firm resolve in combating cross-border terrorism. They also highlighted how #OperationSindoor exemplifies the new normal set by India in this ongoing effort."

The Indian delegation included BJP MP Daggubati Purandeswari, Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, former union minister MJ Akbar, and former ambassador Pankaj Saran.

Earlier, the delegation met the Indian diaspora at India House in London. During the interaction, the MPs reaffirmed India’s commitment to combating terrorism in all forms.

"The All Party Delegation of MPs interacted with representatives of the large and diverse Indian Diaspora at India House in London today. They reaffirmed India's united stance and unwavering commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms, and underlined the readiness of India to continue to decisively punish any and all acts of terror," the Indian High Commission posted on X.

While speaking with the diaspora, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Pakistan is not a "democratic country" and added that Pakistan’s armed forces have taken control of the country for themselves.

Prasad said, "What is the problem of Pakistan? The problem with Pakistan is that it is not a democratic country. 'Muhammad Ali Jinnah ne banaya Pakistan, wo ban gaya Generals ki dukaan, that is the situation of Pakistan. The second thing, very important, is people, leaders make the country. There, Pakistan armed forces have made a country for themselves, unelectable, not accountable, not popular sanction, but they seized power. Ayub Khan field marshal for 10 years. Mr Yahya Khan for seven and a half years, Mr Zia ul Haq for eleven years, General Musharraf for nine years."

"Now you have Munir, General, who was defeated in the field but became a field marshal. That is the whole scenario. The prime minister said, enough is enough. On the 7th of May, Indian forces made a decisive blow against only the terrorist outfit, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Muzaffarabad, 100 terrorists were killed. Remember this attack was unleashed at the dead of night around 1:30 for 20 minutes only, and no civilian casualties were there. In the morning, we informed the Pakistestablishment, raat mein aapki pitai ki hai, lekin khali terrorist camp ko hi pita hai (You were beaten up at night, but only terrorist camps were targeted), okay, no citizen has been touched at all. They did not respond. They attacked our skies, the cities through missiles. And I want you to salute our air force and armed forces. They completely blocked all the missiles, completely paralysed them," he added.

Ravi Shankar Prasad mentioned that Osama bin Laden was caught in Pakistan. He said the terrorists who hijacked the plane to rescue Masood Azhar were killed and Masood Azhar's family members were also killed by the Indian Armed Forces under Operation Sindoor.

Twenty-six people were killed and several others injured in the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in the death of more than 100 terrorists from groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.

(With inputs from ANI)