Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday strongly condemned Pakistan for its open support of terrorists, asserting that the country is no longer waging a “proxy war” but engaging in a deliberate and direct war strategy against India. His remarks came in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, which targeted and eliminated over 100 terrorists affiliated with Pakistan-based terror groups.
Speaking about the terrorists killed during Operation Sindoor, PM Modi revealed that Pakistan gave them full state honours—draping their coffins in national flags and saluting them with military personnel—exposing what he called the “hypocrisy and double standards” of the neighbouring country.
“We can’t call this a proxy war anymore,” Modi stated. “When terrorists are honoured with the national flag and military salutes in Pakistan, it shows this is a conscious war strategy, not a shadow conflict. If they are treating this as war, our response will match that.”
Reflecting on the historical roots of cross-border terrorism, the Prime Minister recalled the 1947 partition and the first armed incursion into Kashmir. He said Pakistan seized part of the region using armed groups in the name of Mujahideen and lamented that had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s advice been heeded back then, the decades of terrorism India has endured could have been avoided.
“In 1947, the country was divided, and that very night the first terrorist attack happened in Kashmir. Pakistan grabbed part of Mother India using terrorists. If we had acted decisively then, this 75-year-long terror saga might have ended there,” he said.
Modi further underlined that Pakistan resorted to terrorism because it repeatedly failed in conventional warfare against India. “Our armed forces have defeated Pakistan in all three wars. Realising they can’t win on the battlefield, they chose the route of proxy war. They attacked whenever they found an opening, and we kept absorbing the pain. But now, the time has come to uproot the thorn once and for all.”
The remarks follow India’s decisive response through Operation Sindoor, which was launched after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The operation saw India targeting terror camps and infrastructure across the border, marking a significant escalation in its counter-terror strategy.