Experts and an ex-diplomat criticise EU for urging restraint after Pahalgam attack

Indian security experts and former diplomats cricticised the European Union's appeal for restraint between India and Pakistan following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which killed 26 people.

Experts have accused the EU turning a blind eye to Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism.

Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), took to X and gave a reply to EU Vice President Kaja Kallas, who had urged both nations to de-escalate.


"Clearly you are quite ignorant of what's been happening in this region. If you had any knowledge you would know dialogue and diplomacy has been done to death (the death of Indians at the hands of Islamist Pakistani terrorists) and you have blithely turned a blind eye to the shenanigans of the Islamic State of Pakistan. Please do tell us what dialogue and diplomacy has achieved so far?" Sareen posted on X.


Kallas had earlier said, "Rising tensions between India and Pakistan are alarming. I urge both sides to show restraint and pursue dialogue to ease the situation. Escalation helps no one. I spoke to both @DrSJaishankar and @MIshaqDar50 today to convey these messages."

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal also responded, accusing Kallas of selective outrage. "She doesn't find continued rising tensions between the EU and Russia, which she personally stokes, alarming. India has long suffered from Pakistani-sponsored terrorism. This can't continue."

"The current Pak army chief is a Hindu-hating Islamist bigot. Russia has militarily acted against Ukraine but not the EU but the EU has targeted Russia, demonises it and arms and funds Ukraine to prolong the conflict. Pakistan has attacked India with terrorism since decades. We do not intend to punish Pakistan for what it is doing to a third country. Yet, the EU foreign policy chief equates the two countries and does not recognise our right to react. Double standards and hypocrisy as usual,” Sibal said.


Further, Olivier Blarel, Visiting Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, criticised the EU's approach, saying it ignored both context and consequences. "While we can all hope no further harm will be done. Adopting an equidistant approach is disappointing. It shows lack of knowledge (India has shared Xth times dossiers to Pak after such acts, to no avail) and sensitivity (asking India to just wait arms crossed is a non-starter)," Blarel wrote on X.

The criticism comes at a time when India is exploring options to respond to the Pahalgam terror attack.