'You do not ask a murderer to investigate his own murders': Shashi Tharoor on Pakistan PM’s call for 'neutral probe' into Pahalgam attack

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday rejected Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's call for a 'neutral probe' into the Pahalgam terror attack, saying, "You do not ask a murderer to investigate his own murders."
Speaking to news agency ANI, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, "I would have had no interest in Pakistan's participation in any investigation. You do not ask a murderer to investigate his own murders."
"The Indus Water Treaty is more of a symbolic gesture at this point," he added.

These remarks from Tharoor came after PM Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that Pakistan is ready for a “neutral and transparent” investigation into the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, rejecting what he called India's "baseless allegations" made "without credible investigation or verifiable evidence."
The Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 killed 26 people, mostly tourists, after terrorists targeted Baisaran, a tourist spot in south Kashmir.
He further acknowledged that there were lapses in "security intelligence" in the Pahalgam attack but emphasised "main focus should be on the bigger picture," rather than assigning immediate blame.
"Obviously, there was no full proof intelligence. There were failures, I agree, but that should not be our main focus right now."
"No country can ever have a foolproof 100% intelligence," he added.


Tharoor further drew parallel with Israel, noting that "even the world's best intelligence services were caught off guard on October 7."
"We have got the example of Israel, the world's best intelligence services according to everybody, which were taken by surprise on October 7, just two years ago. It seems to me, just as Israel is waiting till the end of the war before they demand accountability," the Congress MP said.
"Similarly, I think we too should see the present crisis through and then demand accountability from the government," he continued.
"We will never know about the various terror attacks that were successfully thwarted. We only get to know about the ones that we failed to thwart. This is normal in any nation," he added.
Tharoor also expressed his concern over the human cost of the strained relations between India and Pakistan, stating that, "The human cost of people being forced to go back is sad. Patients here will have to go back in the middle of their treatment. There are husbands and wives across the borders. There are complicated cases where the parent has the passport of one country while the child has the passport of another."
"I feel sorry for them. But when the government wants to send a strong signal that normal relations are no longer possible, ordinary human beings inevitably become the victims," he added.
India has implemented robust measures against Pakistan regarding its involvement in cross-border terrorism as border tensions persist.
Officials have assured that severe consequences await both the perpetrators and planners of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The attack was one of the worst in the Valley since the 2019 Pulwama attack, where 40 CRPF jawans were killed.