Pakistan told the UN General Assembly on Saturday that India’s terrorist exports have gone global, accusing New Delhi of elevating propaganda into statecraft and embracing disinformation as diplomacy during the 81st session’s general debate.
Counsellor Saima Saleem, responding to remarks by the Indian representative, described India as a state that has “elevated propaganda into statecraft, embraced disinformation as diplomacy, exports terrorism as an instrument of policy, pursues hegemony as a regional strategy, mainstreamed Islamophobia and institutionalised Hindutva ideology.”
She presented what she called the “extraordinary balance sheet of today’s incredibly intolerant India,” asserting that it “exports terrorism and violence while trying to import victimhood and sympathy.”
Saleem said Pakistan knows the cost of Indian-sponsored terrorism all too well, noting that since the turn of the century Pakistan has lost nearly 100,000 lives to terrorism, generations have been scarred, and billions of dollars have been drained from the national economy.
She emphasised that Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts and sacrifices have been well recognised internationally, and that Islamabad has presented extensive evidence to the international community of India’s financing, aiding and abetting of terrorist groups targeting Pakistanis, including the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade.
“Yet, despite its endless lectures to others on terrorism, we are still waiting to hear India unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks that kill innocent Pakistani civilians,” Saleem said. “But how can we expect India to condemn its proxies?”
She argued that India’s terrorist exports have gone from regional to global, citing former Indian naval commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted in Pakistan on terrorism and espionage charges, and Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in the United States for plotting the murder of a Sikh leader at the direction of the Indian government.
Pakistan’s statement at the 81st UN General Assembly session underscores its ongoing efforts to highlight the global dimensions of India’s alleged terrorist exports, a charge New Delhi has consistently denied. The exchange marks another chapter in the long-running diplomatic confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Source: Dawn News