India's stand on terrorism: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday again reiterated India's staunch belief in the "zero tolerance" model on terrorism. While speaking virtually at the 52nd Session of the Human Rights Council, the minister underscored that terrorism accounts for indefensible violation of human rights and added it has no justifications.
"India believes the world must resolutely display zero tolerance in regard to terrorism. It is the most indefensible violation of human rights and has no justification in any circumstances," said Jaishankar. Without naming Pakistan in his address, the foreign minister asserted that the perpetrators of terrorism should be held beholden for the crime against humanity.
"Its perpetrators must always be held accountable," he said.
Pakistan did not take sufficient action to dismantle terror groups working against India: US
Notably, his remarks came a day after the United States exposed Islamabad's role in nurturing and harbouring terrorists in its country. The report said Pakistan's terrorists eventually diverted to neighbouring India to carry out lethal operations against civilians and defence personnel.
In the latest development, the US State Department released a report on terrorism titled-- "Country Reports on Terrorism"-- it emphasised how Islamabad has been using its soil to "harbour United Nations-designated terrorists". "Several UN- and US-designated terrorist groups that focus on attacks outside the country continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2021, including the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)," the report noted.
Pakistan drove terrorist attacks on India
Further, the report found that Islamabad took "some steps" in 2021 to counter terrorism financing which was mainly concentrated on spreading terror in India, it noted the authorities did not take sufficient action to dismantle them. "Although Pakistan took some steps in 2021 to counter terror financing and to restrain some India-focused militant groups, authorities did not take sufficient action to dismantle them," according to the report. Further, it noted that Pakistan successfully prosecuted JeM founder Masood Azhar in absentia and JeM leader Abdul Rauf Azhar; however, LeT and JeM continue to operate within the country.
India, on several occasions, exposed Islamabad for spreading terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other regions of the world. During his recent speeches at the UN forum, Jaishankar highlighted how even the Pakistan intelligence agency, ISI, was involved in the brutal attack in Mumbai. Recently, Jaishankar lessoned his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto when he tried to grill India on the issue of terrorism. In fact, Jaishankar called the country the "epicentre of terrorism".
