External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday urged the world to stop pretending that the Pakistani state was not involved in terrorism, underscoring that its army was neck deep in it.

"We should not go along with the narrative that Pakistan does not know what is going on. The most notorious terrorists on the United Nations (UN) sanctions list are all in Pakistan," Jaishankar said in an interview with a Dutch media outlet.

Jaishankar said: “They (wanted terrorists) operate in the big cities (in Pakistan), in broad daylight. Their addresses are known. Their activities are known. Their mutual contacts are known. So let’s not pretend that Pakistan is not involved. The state is involved. The army is up to its neck in it.”

Asked whether terrorism was partly the result of the Kashmir issue and whether that should be resolved first to be able to combat terrorism, Jaishankar was categorical that for India, terrorism cannot be justified under any circumstance. “For us, terrorism is an independent, completely unacceptable international crime that should not be condoned or justified,” he said.

“The terrorists targeted the vibrant tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir with their attack. So they are prepared to destroy things in Kashmir for their own, very limited, selfish purposes. They also deliberately gave the attack a very religious tint. The world should not accept such practices,” he added.

“As for Jammu and Kashmir, it is a historical fact that it joined India when India and Pakistan separated in 1947. Our position is that the illegal occupiers should return their illegally occupied parts to the rightful owner. And that is us.”

On international mediation over the status of Kashmir, he said: “No, it is a bilateral issue between the countries involved.”

To a related observation that “so, India is not going to accept (US President Donald) Trump’s offer to help with this”, he said: “As I said, this is something we will do together with Pakistan.”

On Wednesday, Trump again claimed credit for easing tensions between India and Pakistan, using trade.

Later at the weekly briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reaffirmed that any India-Pakistan engagement had to be bilateral.

“At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror don’t go together. On terrorism itself, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago,” he said.

“I would like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan.”

On India’s relations with Turkey, amid calls to stop dealing with Ankara because of its support to Pakistan, Jaiswal said: “We expect Turkey to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades. Relations are built on the basis of sensitivities of each other’s concerns.”

On India’s outreach to foreign countries to mobilise opinion against Pakistan, Jaiswal said the seven delegations would visit 33 countries.

The delegation led by the JDU’s Sanjay Jha reached Tokyo on Thursday morning and has already begun its meetings, as has the one headed by the Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde to the UAE.