'Blind to Pakistan's terror': Indian experts blast EU for urging restraint after Pahalgam

Indian security experts and former diplomats have strongly criticised the European Union's appeal for restraint between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which left 26 dead. They accused the EU of drawing a false equivalence between victim and aggressor and turning a blind eye to Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism.

Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), issued a scathing response to EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, who had urged both nations to de-escalate. "Clearly you are quite ignorant of what's been happening in this region," Sareen posted on X. "If you had any knowledge you would know dialogue and diplomacy has been done to death (the death of Indians at the hands of Islamist Pakistani terrorists) and you have blithely turned a blind eye to the shenanigans of the Islamic State of Pakistan. Please do tell us what dialogue and diplomacy has achieved so far?"

Kallas, who also serves as Vice-President of the European Commission, had earlier said, "Rising tensions between India and Pakistan are alarming. I urge both sides to show restraint and pursue dialogue to ease the situation. Escalation helps no one. I spoke to both @DrSJaishankar and @MIshaqDar50 today to convey these messages."

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal also hit back, accusing Kallas of hypocrisy and selective outrage. "She doesn't find continued rising tensions between the EU and Russia, which she personally stokes, alarming. India has long suffered from Pakistani-sponsored terrorism. This can't continue." 

"The current Pak army chief is a Hindu-hating Islamist bigot. Russia has militarily acted against Ukraine but not the EU but the EU has targeted Russia, demonises it and arms and funds Ukraine to prolong the conflict. Pakistan has attacked India with terrorism since decades. We do not intend to punish Pakistan for what it is doing to a third country. Yet, the EU foreign policy chief equates the two countries and does not recognise our right to react. Double standards and hypocrisy as usual,” Sibal wrote.

Olivier Blarel, Visiting Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, also criticised the EU's approach, saying it ignored both context and consequences. "While we can all hope no further harm will be done. Adopting an equidistant approach is disappointing. It shows lack of knowledge (India has shared Xth times dossiers to Pak after such acts, to no avail) and sensitivity (asking India to just wait arms crossed is a non-starter)," Blarel wrote on X.

The criticism comes at a time when India is exploring options to respond to the Pahalgam terror attack, an operation backed by Pakistan.