Pulwama attack: India starts effort to isolate Pakistan in international arena, Foreign Secretary briefs envoys of around 25 nations

Foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale. Image credit: The Finacial Express

In the wake of the ghastly Pulwama attack, which has left the country trembling in extreme anguish and rage, the Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale briefed the envoys of key countries in India on Friday to apprise them on Pakistan’s involvement in supporting terrorism.

The meeting was part of the government’s diplomatic outreach to work towards, what has been described by the government as an attempt of “complete isolation” of Pakistan.

As part of continuing diplomatic efforts on the matter, Foreign Secretary has met around 25 Heads of Mission based in New Delhi today, which included all P-5 countries – US, China, Russia, the UK and France – (permanent members of UN security council), all South Asian countries and several other important partners like Japan, Germany, Republic of Korea and others.

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All the head of the mission were convinced of the role Pakistan plays in supporting and breeding terrorism. They all agreed to the fact that Pakistan has supported Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in carrying out this demonic act and unanimously felt that Pakistan should forthwith stop funding and supporting terrorism.

The Foreign Secretary also highlighted the role played by Pakistan in using terrorism as an instrument of its state policy. The Ministry of External Affairs will continue to take all steps to expose the complicity of Pakistan in the Pulwama Attack and demand immediate and verifiable action against JeM and its leader Masood Azhar.

Prior to this, the foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale of the Ministry of External Affairs had summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood at MEA to register India’s protest against the Pulwama Terrorist attack.

Earlier today, taking stock of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the grisly attack on the CRPF personnel, a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to take diplomatic action to isolate Pakistan on an international level.

Briefing the media after attending the CCS meet, senior Cabinet minister Arun Jaitley announced that the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan stands withdrawn.

Almost immediately after the Pulwama attack, India had reminded the international community about efforts to ban terror groups operating from territories controlled by Pakistan. It had also voiced how an attempt to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, Masood Azhar as an international terrorist is still pending.

Relating to the anguish and infuriation of the citizens, PM Modi today promised vengeance against the plotters of the ghastly attack. He reassured that the country’s Armed Forces have been given free rein to exact revenge from Pakistan. PM further warned that the perpetrators committed a huge mistake to attack the Indian armed forces, for which they will have to pay a huge price.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia