Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has triggered a major political controversy by questioning if there is any evidence to back the claim that Pakistan was involved in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, thereby indirectly giving it a clean chit. In remarks to a news agency, Aiyar said there was no concrete evidence linking Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack and claimed that none of the 33 countries visited by an Indian all-party parliamentary delegation had held Islamabad responsible for the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
Referring to the global outreach conducted by the Indian delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Aiyar noted that neither the United Nations nor the United States had officially blamed Pakistan. He further asserted that apart from Israel, no country had endorsed India’s claim about Pakistan’s role in the attack. Aiyar pointed to what he described as a failure to present compelling evidence identifying any specific Pakistani agency as being behind the operation.
Watch: Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar says, "None of the 33 countries that Tharoor and his team visited blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam terror attack. Neither the UN nor the United States have held Pakistan responsible. We are the only ones saying that Pakistan is behind it,… pic.twitter.com/2xDf0EUPQb
— IANS (@ians_india) August 2, 2025
The remarks have drawn sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which accused the Congress of toeing a pro-Pakistan line and undermining national interest. BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla hit back by highlighting that the United Nations Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team had already flagged the role of The Resistance Front (TRF), an affiliate of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the Pahalgam attack.
C.R. Kesavan, another BJP spokesperson, called the Congress stand disgraceful and accused the party of running campaigns that benefit Pakistan and weaken India’s global position. He said the statements by Congress leaders amounted to speaking for Pakistan and exposed their true political colours.The April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, had left 26 civilians dead and was claimed by TRF.
The episode underscores how the Congress, under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, continues to cast doubt on India’s own assessments while echoing foreign silence on Pakistan’s terror links. At a time when global agencies have raised red flags about groups like TRF and LeT, the party’s stance appears increasingly disconnected from ground realities, raising serious questions about its priorities on matters of national security.
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