India slams China, Pakistan at UNSC for shielding terrorists

India on Wednesday tacitly slammed China and Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for justifying the menace of terrorism and protecting the terrorists in the multilateral forums.

Islamabad too hit out at New Delhi with Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, alleging in a news conference that no country had used terrorism better than India. Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, Asad Majeed Khan, also briefed the foreign diplomats based in Islamabad about New Delhi’s alleged role in terrorist strikes in his country.

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“On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during an open debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism” at the United Nations Security Council. It is one of the signature events being held at the UNSC during the month-long presidency of India.

Jaishankar, himself, chaired the UNSC session, which was also attended by Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Though Pakistan is not a member of the Security Council, it can attend the meeting as it is an ‘open debate’ and all the UN member states can participate.

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The officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan on Wednesday shared a dossier with the foreign diplomatic missions based in Islamabad. They claimed that the dossier contained evidences of India’s role in terrorist attacks in Pakistan, particularly the one in front of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s house in Lahore in June 2021.

“As perpetrators of terrorism are drum-beating as United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidents to talk about terrorism from imaginary sources. And we are also at a unique place because no one is willing to call the bluff, to call out the clear, simple, glaring hypocrisy,” Khar said at a news-conference in Islamabad.

Islamabad in the past used the forums of the UN and other multilateral organizations to run a campaign against New Delhi, often accusing the Government of India of violating human rights of people in Jammu and Kashmir and directly or indirectly justifying terrorist strikes in India.

China too has been shielding terrorists based in Pakistan from being designated by the UNSC as individuals linked to Al Qaeda, Taliban and Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and thus from being placed under full-spectrum UN sanctions, including assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.