Some countries subvert collective resolve to fight terrorism: Jaishankar’s veiled attack on Pakistan at UNSC

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday trained its guns on Pakistan at the UN Security Council and said “when we see state hospitality being extended to those with the blood of innocents on their hands, we should never lack the courage to call out their double-speak.”
Chairing a briefing on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said Pakistan-based terror groups like LeT and JeM continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement.
Jaishankar recalled the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Pathankot air base and Pulwama attacks carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorists.
Without naming Pakistan, where proscribed UN terrorists and terror groups enjoy safe haven and state support, the external affairs minister said, “We must never countenance sanctuaries for terrorists or overlook their raising of resources.
“Unfortunately, there are also some countries who seek to undermine or subvert our collective resolve to fight terrorism. That cannot be allowed to pass,” he said.
The heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justifies this growing anxiety, he added.
India drew parallels between the Covid-19 pandemic and the scourge of terrorism and told the powerful 15-nation UN Security Council “let us always remember that what is true of Covid is even more true of terrorism: none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”
“In our own immediate neighbourhood, ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K) has become more energetic and is constantly seeking to expand its footprint. Events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security,” he said.
“Whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement,” Jaishankar said.
“We, in India, have of course had more than our fair share of challenges and casualties. The 2008 Mumbai terror attack is imprinted in our memories. The 2016 Pathankot air base attack and the 2019 suicide bombing of our policemen at Pulwama are even more recent,” Jaishankar said, expressing solidarity with victims and their families all over the world who have suffered, and continue to suffer, from the scourge of terrorism.
Pakistan-based Hafiz Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty on, has been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases. He is serving a jail sentence at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore for his conviction in terror financing cases.
Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) is the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
In 2019, the United Nations designated Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”.
India’s most wanted terrorist Azhar has been charge-sheeted in several cases from the 2001 Parliament attack to the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.