Daily Times

A top Pakistani diplomat has told the international community that Pakistan continues to be a victim of attacks from “externally sponsored terrorist groups” such as the TTP, Da’esh and Baloch militant groups, warning that the country would employ all means to defeat them.

“We have ample evidence of the external state support to these terrorist groups by our adversary to attack at Karachi Stock Exchange, Chinese Consulate and Dams and infrastructure,” Ambassador Munir Akram said, obviously referring to India.

“Pakistan has been a principal target of such terrorism, having sacrificed 80,000 lives,” the Pakistani envoy added.

He was speaking at a Tuesday’s session on ‘The Global Threat Landscape: Assessment of Current and Emerging Trends’, which was part of the third UN Counter-Terrorism Week now underway in New York,

Ambassador Akram also spoke about the continued campaign to portray struggles for self-determination and national liberation as terrorism, in order to justify the oppression of peoples under foreign occupation. “It is essential to respect pillar four of the GCTS (UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy) and to clearly define terrorism and distinguish it from legitimate struggles for national liberation and self-determination,” he said. “Despite our decisions, the international community has failed to address the root causes of terrorism, including foreign occupation, denial of self-determination, injustice and oppression,” the Pakistani envoy said.

He also said that counter-terrorism policies have so far singled out only one religion – Islam – for affiliation with terrorism and extremism, fanning the flames of Islamophobia.

“The greatest emerging terrorist threat is from neo-fascist, right wing and Islamophobic extremism and terrorism,” Ambassador Akram said, adding that the UN’s counter-terrorism architecture must reflect this. He also called for addressing the new cyber tools of terrorism, crypto-currencies, on-line terrorist recruitment, incitement to violence and disinformation.

Meanwhile, Shafqat-Ullah, Director Counter Terrorism in Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke in an other session on ‘Strengthening Capacity Building Programmes: Making them fit for Purpose to Meet Resilience Gaps’. In his remarks, Shafqat-Ullah mostly made the points that Ambassador Munir outlined in his intervention.

But he specifically referred to the thorough investigation into the deadly terrorist attack in Lahore on 21 June 2021 that established that its facilitators, financers, abettors, and ultimately the master-minds were from “our neighbour and those terrorists were controlled by the intelligence agency of our adversary.”

Pakistan, he said, has also caught red-handed serving naval commander Kulbhushan Jhadav, who has confessed to committing the terrorist activities in Pakistan.

“We have provided irrefutable evidence of such externally sponsored terrorism to the international community and the UN Security Council,” Shafqat-Ullah said, hoping that the international community will take decisive steps to address this threat.