'Pakistan will be brought to its knees': Hardeep Puri on Pahalgam terror attack

Chandigarh: Hitting out at Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said the neighbouring country will be "brought to its knees so that they never think of resorting to such a despicable act again".

Puri said Pakistan was a country in "terminal decline" periodically using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

"I think they have miscalculated this time. They have dialled the wrong number because the leadership we have now is led by the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi). The statement the PM made from Bihar was that - enough is enough and now they will face the consequences," the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said at an event in Mohali.

Relations between India and Pakistan that were already strained nosedived further after the Pahalgam terror attack, with New Delhi announcing a raft of retaliatory steps and Islamabad hitting back with a string of tit-for-tat measures.

On Wednesday, India announced a set of diplomatic measures, including the expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 and immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post, alleging cross-border links to the Pahalgam attack.

On the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, Puri said this was the first time India had taken such a step that "inflicts appropriate cost" on Pakistan.

"I don't think this is an occasion for me to speculate on the range of options that will be used, but I think the country (Pakistan) is in terminal decline... the western neighbour will be brought to its knees so that they never think of resorting to such a despicable act again," said Puri, a former diplomat.

Puri was speaking at a symposium on 'One Nation One Election: Reshaping India's Electoral Landscape' at an event held in a private university.

The minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, "we have gone from the tenth largest economy to become the fifth largest economy in the world. And if you believe the International Monetary Fund, we will be the fourth largest economy in a very short period of a few months and the third largest economy by 2027 or 2028".

"What does economic growth require, it requires an enabling environment. Why are some states more successful -- law and order situation is under control they provide a good enabling environment for entrepreneurs, for the industry to be established," he said.

Referring to the Partition in 1947, Puri said: "When we became an independent nation, these (India and Pakistan) were two countries born from the womb of the same mother. Here we are the fifth largest economy in the world and the other country, which believes in using terror as an instrument of state policy and cross-border terrorism...." Puri said the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, was a "despicable act".

"Terrorism takes away the most fundamental human right of all -- the right to life," he said.

Twenty-five tourists and a ponywalla were killed and several others injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Tuesday afternoon.