Operation Sindoor: ‘Will speak as responsible Indians,’ says Supriya Sule ahead of all-party delegations’ visits

Supriya Sule will be leading the delegation which will visit Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa. File pic

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, who is to lead an all-party delegation to put forward India's stance against terrorism, emphasised that all the Members of the Parliament (MP) who will be representing India in various world capitals, will be speaking "as responsible Indians", reported news agency ANI.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Sule said the remaining delegations would depart on Saturday, following a scheduled briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

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"We will discuss only after the MEA briefs us. This is a huge responsibility. Whatever we say during our outreach, we will say it as responsible Indians," Sule said.

Talking about the MEA briefing of the remaining four delegations, she added, "Briefing of the remaining four groups has been scheduled for tomorrow, and we will leave for our visit the day after tomorrow."

Sule will be leading the delegation which will visit Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Eight other members, including Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Rajiv Pratap Ruddy, Anurag Singh Thakur, and V Muraleedharan, along with Manish Tewari and Anand Sharma from the Congress, Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, and former permanent representative of India to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, are part of the group.

The all-party delegations will highlight India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations. They would present before the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance against terrorism.

Earlier in the day, a delegation headed by Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP Shrikant Shinde met with Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan and parliamentarian Ali Rashid Al-Nuaimi in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), as part of India's global outreach against terrorism after Operation Sindoor.

Operation Sindoor: UAE, Japan support India's fight against terrorism

After the meeting, Al-Nuaimi affirmed his support for India in its fight against terrorism.

"Terrorism has no religion, no nationality. It is an evil for all humanity," Nuaimi told reporters, adding, "Terrorism is an enemy of humanity.... Wise people should rise and speak against terrorism."

Another delegation met Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and reiterated India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms.

Iwaya expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by New Delhi. The Japanese Foreign Minister also called for strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts.

A total of seven groups comprising eight to nine members from various political parties have been selected by India to represent its stance of zero tolerance against terror and brief the representatives of other countries on Operation Sindoor.

The operation was launched on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. The Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in India's strikes.

After the operation, Pakistan resorted to cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir, in which India's civilians were killed. Drone attacks were also attempted along the border regions but India thwarted them and launched a coordinated attack in response, damaging radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between the countries was announced.

(With ANI inputs)