Terrorism is a challenge that India has been confronting since its Independence, as the country’s neighbour is an “epicentre of terrorism”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday at the United Nations General Assembly, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
The links of major terror attacks in recent decades can be traced to this neighbouring country, he said. Most recently, it was witnessed in the form of “cross-border barbarism” in Pahalgam, where 26 civilians were murdered by terrorists, Jaishankar said.
India exercised the right to defend its people following the Pahalgam attack, and “brought the organiser and perpetrators (of the terror attack) to justice”, the minister said, referring to the Operation Sindoor which Indian forces launched in early May.
Further hitting out at Pakistan, Jaishankar said the UN’s “designated lists of terrorists are replete with its nationals”.
The minister said that the inter-governmental organisation should see countering terrorism as a particular priority, because it “synthesises bigotry, violence, intolerance and fear”.
Terrorism is a shared threat, and it is essential that there is “much deeper international cooperation” to counter it, he added.
Jaishankar further targeted Pakistan, saying, “When nations openly declare terrorism a state policy, when terror hubs operate on an industrial scale, when terrorists are publicly glorified, then such actions must be unequivocally condemned.”
The Indian foreign minister also appealed the UN members to choke the financing of terrorism. “Relentless pressure must be applied on the entire terrorism ecosystem. Those who condone nations that sponsor terror will find that it comes back to bite them,” he added.
Jaishankar’s address at the UNGA comes around four months after India and Pakistan were locked in a four-day military face-off. This came after the Indian forces launched targeted strikes at “terror camps” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in the wee hours of May 7, to avenge the terror attack in Pahalgam in the preceding month. Over 100 terrorists were killed in action, according to the Indian government.
