Pakistan, despite being a terrorism victim, has the will, determination and capability to defeat externally-sponsored scourge, “ironically” aided and financed by India, a senior Pakistani diplomat has told a UN panel on Thursday.
“We have led the fight against terrorism over the last two decades,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, acting permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said during a debate in the General Assembly ‘s Legal (sixth) Committee on ‘Measures to eliminate International Terrorism’.
Noting that this menace continues to mutate into various new forms, he underscored the need for UN’s counter-terrorism architecture to incorporate the new types and cyber-tools of terrorism, including cryptocurrencies and online terrorism recruitment.
Ambassador Jadoon also called for addressing the unresolved conflicts, foreign occupation and denial of right to self-determination, especially in Kashmir and Palestine, in order to completely wipe out terrorism that has spread across the world.
Ambassador Jadoon’s pointed words on Indian-sponsored terrorism and occupation of Kashmir drew a response from a delegate of India, asserting well-known claims on disputed territory that a Pakistani delegate rejected in his right to reply.
At the outset of his speech, Ambassador Jadoon strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its genocidal war in Gaza, saying it was also seeking to provoke a wider war across the Middle East region, and must be held accountable. “Unless we act firmly against this terror regime, and uphold the UN Charter and international law, we will descend into a Hobbessian world of violence and chaos where life is ‘ugly, brutish and short’.”
Highlighting that Pakistan had suffered 80,000 casualties in fighting terrorism, he said the country continues to suffer from state sponsored cross-border attacks by the TTP Fitna al Khawarij, Da’esh and insurgent groups such as the Majeed Brigade.
“Pakistan has the will, determination and capability to defeat this externally sponsored terrorism, which is actively aided, abetted and financed by our eastern neighbour, ironically a country that likes to play the victim, the Pakistani delegate added, pointing out that Al-Qaeda was decimated largely due to its efforts.
The international community, Ambassador Jadoon said, has a responsibility to ensure that counter-terrorism efforts were not misused to violate human rights and international humanitarian law, as is being done by Israel in occupied Palestine and by India in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan, he added, fully supports the OIC’s position that a consensus-based Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) must clearly distinguish between acts of terrorism and the legitimate struggle of peoples under foreign and colonial occupation to self-determination and national liberation.
“Any definition of terrorism, including one in a comprehensive convention, must encompass the new and emerging forms of extremism and terrorism, including violent acts by white supremacists, far right extremists, violent nationalist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim groups, such as Hindutva groups, and similar ideologies in various parts of the world,” the Pakistani envoy said, underscoring the need for changes in the UN’s counter -terrorism architecture and sanctions regime so that Islamophobic concepts such as “jihadists”, “Islamists”, “radical Islam” were excluded from the UN’s Lexicon.
Speaking in right of reply, the Indian delegate claimed that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and accused Pakistan of nurturing and exporting terrorism.
On his part, Pakistani delegate Jawad Ajmal firmly ejected his Indian counterpart’s accusations about Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism and claims on Kashmir, calling on India to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions that provide for the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self determination.
“It is unfortunate that India, which is committing the most brutal state terrorism in the occupied territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and sponsoring terrorism globally, is making such false accusations,” he said.
“But this is common amongst such gross violators of international law who openly commit acts of aggression against their neighbours, pursue colonial settler policies of occupying land illegally and falsely label the legitimate struggles for freedom and liberation as terrorism.”
Ajmal, a first secretary at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, also said India is actively involved in terror financing through money laundering networks and running proxies against Pakistan.
Indian attempts to damage and destroy Pakistani economic trade routes was an open secret, particularly the targeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through attacks, planned and orchestrated by terrorist groups, pointing out that India was also fomenting terrorism in Balochistan.
“The world has for long ignored warnings of India’s unacceptable behaviour that is a manifestation of its government’s Hindutva group of ideologically motivated individuals inspired by hate and violence,” Ajmal said.
“As a consequence, Indian terror franchise has gone global with a series of assassination campaigns against its dissidents residing overseas that has been exposed in Canada and the United States, while Indian leaders publicly boast of murdering their citizens abroad.”