Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: A vigorous campaign by the Pakistani delegation at the United Nations to counter repeated Indian attempts to link Pakistan with terrorism by exposing India’s “ominous role” in supporting and perpetrating terrorism against its neighbours has begun to show results, according to diplomatic observers.
The latest diatribe against Pakistan and terrorism neither new nor unexpected came earlier this week from Indian Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti who was obviously stung by the United Nations Security Council meeting on Jammu and Kashmir initiated by Pakistan on the anniversary of India’s illegal unilateral measures in the disputed state. That meeting left him with no other recourse than to make a vain attempt to try and cast Pakistan in bad light, it was pointed out. Earlier, on the eve of the Security Council meeting of August 5, the Indian envoy released a similar video message to cast shadow on the Council meeting but that failed as well.
While India continues to rant against Pakistan, diplomats said, its anti-Pakistan campaign has little traction. It can no longer defame Pakistan for Taliban “safe havens” especially after the United States has signed a peace agreement with the Taliban and agreed to delist them from the Security Council’s sanctions list.
Similarly, a recent report of the UN’s Counter Terrorism Monitoring Team has confirmed that Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) are located in Afghanistan from where they launch cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistan, vindicating Pakistan’s long held stance of being a victim of their attacks.
For the past year, besides promoting the Kashmir cause, Pakistan and its delegation at the UN have pursued a parallel campaign to unveil India’s role in promoting terrorism against Pakistan and it is stated to be making good progress.Last week, speaking in the Security Council’s debate on the nexus between terrorism and organized crime, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram, called India the “fountainhead of terrorism” in the region.
In that speech, Ambassador Akram stated that India had used terrorism as a policy instrument against all its neighbors at one time or another.
Following the capture and conviction of the Indian spy, Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan had proposed the names of four Indian nationals for inclusion in the Security Council’s list of terrorists: Angara Appaji, Gobinda Patnaik, Ajoy Mistry and Venumadhav Dongra.
