After Iran's attacks in Pakistan, India says it 'understands' actions taken in 'self-defence'

New Delhi: After Iran carried out missile strikes on two camps of the terrorist group, Jaish al-Adl, in Pakistan, India on Wednesday stated that it understood actions taken by the countries in self-defence.

New Delhi also underlined its policy of zero-tolerance for terrorism.

“This is a matter between Iran and Pakistan,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi. “Insofar as India is concerned, we have an uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism. We understand actions that countries take in their self-defence.”

The Indian Army had carried out a ‘surgical strike’ on terrorist camps along its Line of Control with Pakistan on September 29, 2016, in the wake of an attack on its brigade headquarters at Uri in Kashmir eleven days ago. The Indian Air Force had also bombed the terrorist camps at Balakot deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019, in response to the killing of paramilitary personnel in attacks by the Jaish-e-Mohammed group based in the neighbouring country.

Iran carried out the missile strikes targeting two camps of the Jaish-al-Adl (aka Jaysh al-Dhulm) at Kouh-Sabz in Balochistan in Pakistan in the late hours of Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday – just close on the heels of India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to the West Asian nation.

Jaishankar met his counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on Monday. He also called on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

New Delhi will also soon host Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of the Supreme National Council of Iran.

Jaishankar conveyed to Amir-Abdollahian and Raisi condolences on behalf of the Government of India for the death of over 80 people in the terrorist attack at Kerman in Iran on January 3. The Islamic State already claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Iran’s missile attacks on the camps of Jaish-al-Adl in Pakistan were in response to the outfit’s attack on a police camp at Rask, a town in the West Asian nation, last month.

Meanwhile, at the 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, India strongly protested after Pakistan raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. “While our focus is on coming together to strengthen NAM collectively, we have been exposed to the unfortunate, misplaced, predictable and blatant misuse of this august platform by Pakistan, as it propagates false and malicious propaganda against my country. Any interference in India's internal affairs is totally unacceptable and we completely reject it,” Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, the Minister of State for External Affairs, who represented New Delhi at the summit, said while delivering his statement.