A parliamentary panel on Friday asked the government to goall out to explain to the international community reasons behind India’sdecision to carry out air strike inside Pakistan.
The suggestion came when Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhalebriefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs about thelatest developments that have taken place between India and Pakistan after theFebruary 14 Pulwama attack by JeM in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed .
Gokhale, who was assisted by officials of the Ministry ofExternal Affairs, informed the members about the air strikes in Pakistan asalso about the retaliation by the western neighbour, source said.
He told the panel that the attempt by Pakistan Air Force totarget military installations in India was unsuccessful as it was thwarted bythe IAF which lost a jet in the fight back.
The members told the foreign secretary that the governmentshould vigorously publicise across the world the reasons behind New Delhi’smove, a member later said.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi is a member of the committeebut was not present in the meeting Friday.
Gokhale answered queries about the assessment of damagecaused by the air strike. But he explained that the Defence Ministry was betterequipped to answer this.
The foreign secretary also informed the members on how Indiagot the support of the members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) onthe issue where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is a guest of honour.
Pakistan has boycotted the plenary session of OIC meet toprotest India’s participation there.
The panel members also lauded the armed forces, includingthe IAF and described the air strike as a “glorious and heroic” jobwhich needs to be widely publicised.
Earlier, Gokhale shared in detail the sequence of events ofthe last few days till the capture of the Indian pilot.
The purpose of the meeting, described as good andconstructive, was part of “parliamentary accountability” and theministry gave a briefing in this regard, a member said.
The committee is headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.The briefing was on Indo-Pak relations in the light of the strain inrelationship after the Pulwama attack and an air strike by India.