Pakistan points fingers at India on cross-border terrorism

In what is a classic case of playing victim with the pot calling the kettle black, Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to hold accountable the “masterminds” who continue to support, finance, and sponsor cross-border terrorist attacks into its territory, Dawn reported.

Pakistan raised the issue of cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan after India used the UN forum on Monday to accuse Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir.

The Indian initiative turned the annual meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New York into a battle of words between South Asia’s two nuclear powers. This was the committee’s first briefing since January when India assumed its chair, the report said.

Earlier this week, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced that Pakistan had intercepted communications between those who conducted the attacks in Balochistan and their handlers in Afghanistan and India, Dawn reported.

Using a similar, indirect approach, a Pakistani representative Umer Siddique urged the UN body to ensure that Afghanistan’s territory was not used for launching attacks into Pakistan, Dawn reported.

The Pakistani representative reminded committee members that more than once Pakistan shared with the UN Security Council irrefutable evidence of external (Indian) involvement in terrorist attacks inside its territory, Dawn reported.

“We all know who has been supporting and financing terror groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA),” Siddique said, the report added.