It is up to Pakistan to de-escalate, will respond to further actions by Islamabad: India

New Delhi: Pakistan only can decide if it wants to de-escalate tensions with India as New Delhi responded to the "original escalation" triggered through the barbaric Pahalgam terror strike, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Thursday as tensions between the two sides soared.

The foreign secretary also cautioned Pakistan against using fabricated allegations of attack on the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir as a pretext for targeting Indian infrastructure of a similar nature, and said Islamabad will be responsible for the "consequences".

Misri made the remarks at a media briefing that came hours after the defence ministry said the armed forces foiled Pakistan military's attempts last night to target military installations in 15 cities in the northern and western parts of the country using missiles and drones.

The foreign secretary said any military action by Pakistan will be responded to with a firm approach.

"First of all, it is Pakistan that escalated on April 22 (Pahalgam attack). We are only responding to that escalation. If there is an attempt at further escalation by Pakistan, it will be responded to in an appropriate domain," Misri said.

"And therefore, the choice is entirely that of Pakistan to make," he said, making it clear that the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 civilians was the "original escalation."

The Pakistani attempt to target the Indian cities came after Indian armed forces early Wednesday carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan under Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam strike.

Clad in combat fatigues, Col Sofiya Qureshi of the Army's Corps of Signals, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, a helicopter pilot of the IAF, also attended the media briefing.

Misri also slammed Pakistan for its disinformation campaign following the Operation Sindoor.

"This is a country where the lies had begun when it was born. When the Pakistan Army attacked Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, they told lies to the UN that they had nothing to do with it, the people who went in were tribals," Misri said.

"When our army and UN officials reached there, they saw the Pakistan Army had infiltrated (the region). Then, they had to acknowledge that their troops were there. This journey started 75 years ago, I am not surprised that this kind of disinformation is being indulged in," he said.

The foreign secretary said countries around the world came in support of India following the Pahalgam attack and supported New Delhi's "right to respond" to these attacks in self-defence.

Misri also slammed Pakistan for trying to wash its hands off terrorism.

"I think Pakistan's reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism is rooted in a number of instances where concrete evidence is available, not just to India, but to governments and authorities and agencies around the world," he said.

"There are several terrorist attacks around the world where Pakistani fingerprints have been found. I don't need to deliver the point with regards to this audience about where Osama Bin Laden was found, and who called him a martyr," he added.

Misri said Pakistan has for decades pursued cross-border terrorism into India with "impunity".

Pakistan is also home to a "very large" number of UN-proscribed terrorists as well as terrorists proscribed by several other governments in the world, including Masood Azhar and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The foreign secretary highlighted the Pakistani military establishment's ties with terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

He pointed to the presence of Pakistani military officers at what he said were funerals with "state honours" held for terrorists killed in Wednesday's strike.

"Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan. It doesn't seem to make much sense to us," he said.

Misri also rejected Pakistan's calls for a joint investigation into the Pahalgam attack.

"I think you know the history well on this, you know the track record well, and it is not a bright track record in so far as Pakistan is concerned," he said.

Misri cited how Pakistan stonewalled investigations into the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2016 Pathankot attack.

The foreign secretary, to a question about India approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to review its bailout package for Pakistan, said the country's executive director at the global financial body "will put forward India's position" during a meeting of the board in Washington on Friday.

"The decisions of the board are a different matter...But I think the case with regard to Pakistan should be self-evident to those people who generously open their pockets to bail out this country," he said.

Misri also said Indian authorities will meet the United Nations 1267 Sanctions Monitoring Committee soon to provide updated information on The Resistance Front (TRF), a terror outfit that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack.