The Centre on Tuesday told Parliament’s Standing Committee on External Affairs that India would continue to hold talks with Pakistan, and that the country had the support from its neighbours in the fight against terrorism.

The panel, headed by Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, was briefed by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and other senior officials from the Home and Defence ministries, as well as the Vice Chief of the Army. The briefing comes in the backdrop of deteriorating Indo-Pak ties following a terror attack on India’s army base in Uri, and retaliatory surgical strikes across the Line of Control.

Sources in the panel told BusinessLine that the officials said such strikes had been carried out by the defence forces in the past too, but the Centre did not publicise them. “We were told that after the Uri attacks, the government and the Army felt that the report about surgical strike should be publicised to warn the terrorists operated from the Pakistan soil,” a member said. Another member said the officials told them that India had the support of its neighbours in its fight against terror. “They told us that after the Uri attacks, our neighbours were also of the opinion that terrorist launching pads in the Pakistan soil must be controlled,” he said.

An Opposition member said: “We all have a unanimous view of our Army’s actions. The only question on the surgical strike was that how come it was publicised by the Army and the Centre this time. To this, the officials gave us a convincing reply,” the member added.

A BJP member said the officials added that other countries with whom we have friendly relations were also kept in loop on the strike.

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