World needs to mindful of how Pak harbouring terrorism: Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is part of an all-party parliamentary delegation visiting South Korea, on Monday warned that the world needs to be very careful and mindful of how Pakistan has been harbouring terrorism.

At a high-level dialogue with Korean think tanks in Seoul, Banerjee said, "Breeding a snake in your backyard and expecting it to bite only your neighbour is the last thing one should think of."  "Once that snake is unleashed, it will end up biting whoever it can. A snake remains a snake. So we need to be very careful and mindful of how Pakistan has been harbouring terrorism and terrorists from 9/11, 26/11 to Uri, Pahalgam - repeatedly, one after another terror attacks. Osama Bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, a place in Pakistan," he said.

"We want to tell this with all humility and grace that any support extended to Pakistan is a support to terror organisations. Anyone endorsing or defending Pakistan's actions is, in essence, backing terrorism," he said.

Banerjee is part of the delegation led by JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha.

He said the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack is no more a matter of India's national security, it has turned out to be a global imperative now.

"Time and again we have been saying this, how Pakistan has been harbouring, shielding and sheltering terrorists in their own land,"  He said the attack in Pahalgam is a testament to the fact that Pakistan does not want the Indian economy to prosper.

"If you look at the trajectory of economies of India and Pakistan, there is a difference between hell and heaven. India has grown by leaps and bounds while Pakistan is struggling with their own economic crisis," he said.

Banerjee said that after the Pahalgam attack, India expected Pakistan to do justice and bring the perpetrators to book.

"We waited patiently for 14 days and then eventually carried out airstrikes on May 7 after waiting for almost 2 weeks  "But when no action came, India responded with precision. Our air strikes neutralised nine terror infrastructure without harming a single civilian, sending a clear, decisive message to the architects of violence, he said.

"I come from Bengal, a land that shares a civilisational bond with Korea, the land of Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore, whose poem Lamp of the East still resonates deeply in this nation. India is rooted in the values of peace, humanity and non-violence. But let there be no mistake: our tolerance is not timidity,' he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pahalgam attack, which claimed 26 lives.

India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7, following which Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions.

The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10.

The delegation on Monday met Yun Ho-jung, Chairperson of the Korea-India Parliamentary Friendship Group of the Korean National Assembly and briefed him on Operation Sindoor.

The delegation reiterated India's firm zero-tolerance policy against terrorism, and the position of making no distinction between terrorists and countries supporting terrorists, and sought South Korea's support for bringing terrorist organisers, perpetrators, and financiers of terrorism to justice.

Chairperson Yun conveyed that any act of terrorism is unacceptable and cannot be justified, and that there should be no sacrifice of innocent lives by terrorism and reaffirmed South Korea's strong stand against terrorism.