India on Tuesday poked holes into the claims of Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations Munir Akram that his country had accused India of sponsoring terrorism before the UN Security Council.
New Delhi not only exposed Akram's allegations about terrorism, but also dismissed the claims Pakistan had made against India in the statement he claimed to have made at a meeting of the UNSC.
The UNSC had a virtual meeting on Monday, but Pakistan, which is not a member of the council at present, was not invited to take part in it. The permanent mission of Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York, however, posted on its website a statement, claiming it was represented by Akram at the meeting. It accused New Delhi of sponsoring terror strikes in Pakistan, including the August 11, 2018 attack on a bus at Dalbadin in Balochistan that killed three workers from China and the one on the Consulate General of China in Karachi on November 23, 2018. It claimed that New Delhi had also orchestrated the terror attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi on June 29 this year.
Islamabad also alleged that a “terror syndicate” run by New Delhi had of late brought terror organisations Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its breakaway faction Jamat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) together.
India’s permanent mission at the UN in New York issued a statement to counter the allegations. It dismissed Pakistan’s claim that the country too was a victim of terrorism sponsored by India. “They claimed that Pakistan has decimated al-Qaeda from the region. Perhaps, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan is not aware that Osama bin Laden was hiding in their own country in plain sight, and it was the US forces which got him inside Pakistan,” it said.
New Delhi pointed out that Pakistan was home to the maximum number of terror groups proscribed by the UN and many of the terrorists and entities under UN sanctions continued to operate with impunity inside the country.
New Delhi also denounced Pakistan’s criticism against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the alleged “Hindutva terrorism”. “Pakistan makes ridiculous assertions about the internal affairs of India. This is a country whose minority population has dropped drastically from 1947 to what it is today which is just about 3%, which is nothing short of systemic cleansing,” India's permanent mission at the UN stated.