New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that three terrorists, killed in Operation Mahedev on Monday in Srinagar, are Pakistani nationals who carried out the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.
Congress leader P Chidambaram earlier issued a statement suggesting that the terrorists behind the Pahalgam massacre could have been ‘homegrown’, questioning the evidence of Pakistani links.
Shah accused the Congress leader of giving a ‘clean chit’ to Pakistan, alongside claiming that India had irrefutable proof of the terrorists’ identity and origin.
‘These were the same terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack. We have irrefutable proof. Their Pakistani voter numbers were pulled out. What more evidence is needed?’ Shah was quoted as saying.
Further criticizing Chidambaram, Shah said that the former Home Minister Chidambaram questioned the proof that the terrorists were from Pakistan, adding ‘Whom does he want to save? What will he gain by defending Pakistan?’
Laying out evidences of the terrorists’ Pakistan links, Shah said that items including voter ID numbers, made- in-Pakistan chocolates were recovered from them, adding that Chidambaram was ‘giving a clean chit to Pakistan’.
‘If they were not Pakistanis, then Chidambaram is also raising the question as to why Pakistan was attacked... 130 crore people are watching their conspiracy to save Pakistan,’ Shah said.
Chidambaram on Monday asked whether the government had identified the terrorists behind the Pahalgam massacre, adding ‘Where they came from? I mean, for all we know, they could be homegrown terrorists. Why do you assume that they came from Pakistan? There's no evidence of that’.
Responding to criticism, Chidambaram accused the BJP of a ‘deliberate misinformation campaign’ by selectively presenting portion of his interview.
Taking to social media platform X, Chidambaram wrote: ‘Trolls are of different kinds and use different tools to spread misinformation. The worst kind is a troll who suppresses the full recorded interview, takes two sentences, mutes some words, and paints the speaker in a black colour!’