UNITED NATIONS, Oct 08 (APP): Pakistan has called for combating all forms of terrorism and their root causes, while ensuring that counter-terrorism efforts are not misused to violate human rights as the occupying powers are doing in Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir.
“The international community collectively needs to do more to address prolonged unresolved conflicts, foreign occupation and denial of the right to self-determination to peoples under colonial domination and alien rule,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy 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’.
In this regard, he also underscored the need for addressing injustice, oppression and violations of international law under the pretext of counter terrorism.
“We must also clearly distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate struggle of peoples against foreign occupation and for their inalienable right to self-determination,” the Pakistani envoy added.
Noting that this menace continues to mutate into various new forms, Ambassador Jadoon proposed reforming UN’s counter-terrorism architecture from within, through adequate changes to the sanctions regimes to incorporate new and emerging threats and ending the stigmatization of Islam and Muslims.
Pakistan, he said, has led the fight against terrorism for over two decades and suffered over 90,000 casualties — our brave soldiers and civilians, including school children– but unfortunately, continues to suffer from state-sponsored terrorism from across the country’s borders, including terrorist attacks by the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) , Da’esh, the BLA (Balochistan Liberation Army) and its Majeed Brigade that target innocent civilians and children.
“Pakistan has the will, determination and capability to defeat this externally sponsored terrorism, which is actively aided, abetted and financed by a neighbour, ironically an aggressor, a country that also likes to play the victim,” he said in an obvious reference to India.
In May, Ambassador Jadoon said Pakistan’s defence forces gave a befitting response to unprovoked Indian aggression and put an end to it.
“But not all countries have the capacity or capability to thwart such aggression. Such irresponsible actions and malicious attempts to destabilize the region must not be tolerated by the international community.”
He pointed out that global counter-terrorism efforts had failed to address state terrorism – including the use of state power to suppress legitimate struggles for self-determination or to prolong foreign occupation, which are amongst its worst manifestations. There was also the problem of state sponsorship of terrorism in other countries.
The Pakistani envoy urged international community to address this phenomenon and the impunity that continues to be associated with such state terrorism and ensure that counter-terrorism efforts are not misused to violate human rights and provisions of international humanitarian law, as is being done by the occupying powers in Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir.
Any definition of terrorism must also 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, he said.
“We must also take into account the state sponsored extra-territorial assassinations and disinformation campaigns, use of terrorist groups as proxies and hyrdoterrorism as instruments of state policy.”
Reacting to Ambassador Jadoon’s statement, an Indian delegate accused Pakistan of cross-border terrorism including role its alleged involvement — without giving any evidence — in the Pahalgam attack on tourists, sparking another clash.
Pakistan immediately rejected the Indian charges, saying India not only perpetrates state terrorism, but also peddles disinformation and propaganda, proliferating hate through false narratives as part of its narrow foreign policy agenda.
As regards Pahalgam, Pakistani delegate Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, who was exercising his right of reply, said Pakistan had condemned the incident and offered an independent investigation. “We are yet to see evidence of the perpetrators of this attack, details of which remain unknown.”
“Not only was Pakistan’s offer rejected, but it was attacked, its sovereignty violated and 54 innocent Pakistani civilians martyred, 15 of them children, 13 women in a blatant act of aggression,” Jamal, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said, adding Islamabad’s “minutely calibrated” resulted in resounding success, leading to a ceasefire brokered with the good offices of the United States at the request of New Delhi.
“The malicious accusations of cross border terrorism are a deliberate attempt to repeat lies until they are accepted as the truth, which is far from ground realities, the Pakistani delegate said. “This country (India) is not only a regional bully but net destabilizer in the entire region, holding South Asia hostage to its hegemonic designs and Hindutva ideology that inspires hate, divisions and xenophobia.
India, he said, illegally occupy territories, oppress indigenous populations and violate fundamental human rights as in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the disputed status of which is recognized by the UN.
Jamal also accused India of sponsoring and financing terrorist organizations in its neighbourhood, particularly in Pakistan. New Delhi also runs a global campaign of extra territorial assassinations and clandestine proxies on the Pakistani soil and beyond, including the U.S. and Canada.
“It has become a routine script: whenever an incident occurs, Pakistan is reflexively blamed—without any shred of evidence, logic or investigation.”
reaffirming Pakistani commitment to peace, Jamal said,”We have consistently offered dialogue”. True progress, he added, required sincerity, mutual respect, and genuine diplomacy – principles Pakistan has upheld, and which India must finally choose to embrace if it truly seeks peace.