Present UN reporting on terrorist threats ‘plagued by political biases’: India

United Nations, Feb 14: India on Monday voiced regret that the present reporting mechanism of the United Nations on terrorist threats does not treat inputs on the issue by all member states on equal footing and continues to be “plagued by political biases”, saying close attention must be paid to threats emerging from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“We hope that Counter Terrorism Committee, its Executive Directorate – CTED, and the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team will pay close attention to the terrorist threat emerging from Al-Qaida, particularly, their affiliates, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as the atrocities of terrorist groups against religious minorities. It is important that the UN reporting mechanism on these issues is unbiased, objective, inclusive and comprehensive,” Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Rajesh Parihar said.
Delivering India’s national statement at the open briefing of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, Parihar said “it is with regret that our delegation notices that the present reporting mechanism does not treat all member states inputs on an equal footing and continues to be plagued by political biases.”
He added that it is equally important to call out the masterminds behind these terrorist plots and not let them mislead the international community by painting themselves as victims of terrorism. “We need to call their bluff and hold them accountable for their deeds,” he said. Last week, India had voiced its objection over failure of the UN Secretary General’s report on ISIL to take notice of the close links between proscribed terrorist entities such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad despite New Delhi repeatedly flagging these concerns, calling for inputs from all member states to be treated on “equal footing” in future. Speaking in the Security Council briefing on ‘Threat to International Peace & Security Caused by Terrorist Acts’ that took up Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ 14th Report on Threat Posed by ISIL/Da’esh, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti had said last week that India had been reiterating the close links between proscribed terrorist entities under the 1267 Sanctions regime such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups including the Jaish-e-Mohammad. However, “in spite of repeatedly flagging these concerns, the SG’s report has failed to take notice of these linkages. We hope that in future iterations of such reports, inputs from all member states would be treated on an equal footing and an evidence based and credible yardstick be applied by its authors,” he had said.
In his remarks at the briefing on the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) with the Member States of South and South-East Asia, Parihar said that from the past few years, UN member states have been “ringing alarm bells” about terrorists having access to modern and emerging technologies such as internet, on mobile devices, social media, encrypted messaging services and using them to spread hatred, radical propaganda, fake narratives and carry out recruitment and terror activities.
Parihar voiced concern that more recently, terrorist groups have been using unmanned aerial platforms, such as drones and quadcopters for cross border trafficking of drugs and arms and for carrying out terrorist attacks.
He said India has taken several border security measures aimed at stemming terrorist-travel. India has updated and modernised its immigration records and passports and implemented a tighter immigration control through centralised systems like Immigration Visa Foreigner Registration Tracking (IVFRT), ,” he said. (PTI)