UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has termed India’s “brutal” oppression of the people of occupied Kashmir the “worst example” of state-sponsored terrorism which it noted the global counterterrorism measures have failed to address.
“Terrorism must be defeated comprehensively, everywhere,” Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said in the debate of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly on the secretary general’s report on measures to eliminate international terrorism.
Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism, including state terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations regardless of the motivation, while highlighting Islamabad’s role in the fight against the scourge, he said.
“The global counter-terrorism policies have failed to address state terrorism,” the envoy noted, adding: “The worst example of state terrorism is the brutal oppression of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir to deny their recognized right to self-determination.”
Ambassador Akram also underscored the need to address not only the symptoms but also the underlying causes of terrorism. “These include prolonged unresolved conflicts, foreign occupation and denial of the right to self-determination such as in Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine,” he said.
India’s state terrorism has intensified since August 5, 2019 when it took unilateral and illegal measures to impose what it calls a “Final Solution” to Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the envoy said, referring to a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews during World War II.
Today, he said, Pakistan is a victim of cross-border attacks by terrorists, including Security Council-listed militant groups, that are financed and organised by “hostile agencies” to disrupt the development of western and southern Pakistan.
“The international counter-terrorism efforts must address terrorism promoted by right-wing extremist groups and extremist ideologies as agreed in the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy last year,” Ambassador Akram said.
The supremacist Hindutva-inspired and Islamophobic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he said, was one of the world’s oldest and largest fascist movements responsible for killing thousands of Muslims in pogroms and targeted killings across India.
“The RSS should once again be designated as a terrorist organization as it was once included by the Security Council,” he said.
Akram observed that since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, and despite protestations to the contrary, Islam has been associated with acts of terrorism, an increase was noted in the use of derisive terms like “jihadis”, “Islamists”, and “radical Islam”, leading to the increase in institutionalised discrimination and violence against Muslims and the rise of Islamophobic, right-wing, extremist and fascist movements in several countries.
“These extremists are responsible for the vast majority of terrorist and violent acts in Western countries.”
Ambassador Akram also indicated that Pakistan was in favour of a consensual definition of terrorism, which established a clear distinction between terrorism and the legitimate struggle for self-determination.
At the same time, he called for the need of reforming the UN’s counter-terrorism architecture to make it more transparent and equitable, including by making appropriate changes in the Security Council’s sanctions regimes and by further strengthening the office and role of the ombudsperson.
