UNITED NATIONS — Pakistan has once again tried to justify cross-border terrorism by portraying its militants attacking India as “freedom fighters,” drawing a swift and firm response from India, which denounced Islamabad’s remarks as “doublespeak and hypocrisy” from the “epicenter of global terrorism.”
During a session of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Wednesday, Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, a counsellor at Pakistan’s UN Mission, claimed that nations must “distinguish between terrorism and the exercise of the legitimate right of people to resist foreign occupation.” He further cited UN General Assembly Resolution 46/51 to argue that such acts could be considered lawful under international norms.
However, multiple international instruments — including a 1994 UN General Assembly declaration, a 2004 Security Council resolution, and the 1999 International Convention Against the Financing of Terrorism — make clear that criminal acts intended to provoke terror are “unjustifiable under any circumstances.” Resolution 46/51 itself “unequivocally condemns as criminal and unjustifiable all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism wherever and by whomever committed.”
Responding to Ajmal’s comments, Raghoo Puri, First Secretary at India’s UN Mission, strongly countered Pakistan’s assertions. “Terrorism is among the gravest of offences that fundamentally violates the core of humanity. It represents the worst of bigotry, violence, intolerance, and fear, and terrorists are the worst of the worst in humankind,” Puri said.
He added that Pakistan’s “doublespeak and hypocrisy also stand exposed,” describing the country as a “well-known epicenter of terrorism, with established links to multiple terror attacks across the world targeting innocent nationals.”
Ajmal’s remarks came during an interactive dialogue with Ben Saul, the UN Special Rapporteur on Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism. The exchange highlighted Pakistan’s continued efforts to block progress on the long-pending Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, first proposed by India nearly two decades ago.
Ajmal also alleged that India’s counterterrorism operations violated human rights and accused the UN’s counterterrorism framework of unfairly associating terrorism with a single religion. Puri dismissed the claims as Pakistan’s “futile attempts to take cover of Islamophobia to hide its atrocities.”
India reiterated its position that terrorism, and those who aid or abet it, represent the gravest threat to humanity and global peace. (Source: IANS)
