Want Pahalgam attackers brought to justice, Jaishankar tells Russia’s Sergey Lavrov

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has spoken to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and conveyed the perpetrators, backers and planners of the Pahalgam terror attack must be brought to justice.

Jaishankar on Saturday posted on social media platform that he had discussed the Pahalgam attack with Lavrov yesterday. “Its perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice,” the post said.

The Minister had used identical words when he spoke to his US counterpart Marco Rubio on April 30

The Russian side also put out its version of the telephone call, with the Russian embassy in New Delhi put out a statement, saying, “They (Lavrov-Jaishankar) discussed the aggravation of Indian-Pakistani relations following the terrorist attack near Pahalgam”.

The statement said Lavrov has suggested a way forward: “Sergey Lavrov called for the settlement of disagreements between New Delhi and Islamabad by political and diplomatic means on a bilateral basis in accordance with the provisions of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999”.

Meanwhile with this call to his Russian counterpart, Jaishankar has contacted four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Barring China, the others have been directly contacted and informed about New Delhi’s stance. Jaishankar had earlier contacted his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot on April 24 and had followed up with a call to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on April 27.

Also, India has contacted nine of the ten non-permanent members of the UNSC for a two-year term. Pakistan is one of them and has of course not been contacted. The other nine are South Korea, Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Somalia.

Several world leaders, including US president Donald Trump, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also called PM Modi to condemn the Pahalgam attack.

Terrorists on April 22 opened fire in Baisaran, a popular tourist spot in the upper reaches of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, killing 26 people, mostly tourists.