Tahir Mahmoud
That India is a state sponsor of terrorism is well known to its victims, especially in Kashmir and Pakistan. Hitherto, the rest of the world had turned a blind eye to Indian crimes because it is viewed as a lucrative market for exports. Now Pakistan has taken steps to not only compile the evidence but also present its findings to the world.
On November 24, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram handed over a dossier on India’s terror campaign to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He urged the UN chief to prevail on Delhi to desist from its illegal and aggressive activities. The dossier meticulously details India’s support of terrorist outfits that carry out terrorist acts against Pakistan.
Following his meeting with the UN chief, Akram said the secretary general promised to “study the dossier and take appropriate action”. Further, the Pakistani envoy warned that his country reserved the right to “act in self-defence” against India’s unending aggressions.
Pakistan also plans to take the matter to the UN Security Council to highlight India’s sponsorship of terrorism.
At a news briefing later at the Pakistan Mission in New York, Ambassador Akram explained how India’s irresponsible behavior could jeopardise the entire region. When asked why the major powers were not paying much attention to this serious escalation in a nuclearized region, he said: “There is a complacency because there has been a deterrence between India and Pakistan since the May 1998 nuclear tests.”
The Pakistani envoy, however, warned: “… the situation may not remain as stable as people assume because of India’s involvement in terrorist activities against Pakistan.” He went on to say: “That’s why Pakistan wants the international community not to ignore the threat of a potential conflict between two nuclear-armed states.”
Pointing to India’s violation of international law, the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions by stoking terrorism inside Pakistan, Ambassador Akram urged “the secretary general to play his role in persuading India to halt its terror and subversive campaign against Pakistan.” He reminded the UN chief that in its fight against terrorist outfits, Pakistan had made enormous sacrifices.
Akram pointed to the huge costs in lives and material Pakistan had suffered. Since 2014, Pakistan has lost 83,000 civilians and soldiers. The economic and social costs have been equally horrendous: $126 billion. Even as Pakistan has successfully eradicated terrorist outfits from its soil, cross-border terrorist attacks from ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan have escalated in recent months.
“We knew of India’s hand in such attacks,” the Pakistani envoy said. “We now have gathered irrefutable evidence that India is engaged in a systematic campaign to destabilise Pakistan through terrorist attacks, promotion of secession and subversion in what is called Hybrid/5th generation war.”
The dossier, according to ambassador Akram, meticulously lists India’s campaign against Pakistan. It includes:
Additionally, the dossier contains evidence of Indian subversive actions in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and in Karachi. While portraying itself as a “victim of terrorism,” India is actually the principal sponsor and instigator of terrorism. When Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi first revealed details of the dossier in Islamabad on November 15, he said Pakistan had copies of bank transactions, letters, and communication intercepts that show India’s terror financing, arms supply, training to and harbouring of militants.
“India’s terrorist and subversion campaigns are being directed from the highest levels of the Indian leadership,” Qureshi told journalists. Further, in addition to India’s egregious crimes in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, its troops are involved in daily violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC). Since January 2020, India has committed more than “2,700 ceasefire violations… [that] have resulted in the death of 25 innocent people and serious injuries to more than 200 civilians,” the Pakistani foreign minister revealed.
India’s hybrid war has been accompanied by threats of aggression against Pakistan, Qureshi added. “Pakistan has called on the secretary general and the international community to take note of Indian terrorism and subversion against Pakistan and to prevail on India to desist from these illegal and aggressive activities,” he said.
If India’s terrorist acts and egregious crimes are ignored, there is a serious risk of conflict between India and Pakistan that may escalate to a nuclear exchange. The fallout would not remain confined to the region but will engulf the entire world with catastrophic consequences.
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