By The South Asia Times

NEW YORK - Pakistan on Wednesday urged the international community to take notice and stop India from sponsoring terrorism in the region.

Speaking at a High Level Conference on Counter-Terrorism on the Thematic Session IV in New York, Director Counter Terrorism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shafqat-Ullah said that terrorism is a global phenomenon and a common global challenge and Pakistan is making tremendous contributions for uprooting this menace. 

“We face terrorist groups who are funded and financed by our adversary’s agencies. Pakistan has been a principal target of such terrorism, having suffered 80,000 casualties. We continue to face terrorist attacks from the TTP, Daesh as well as Baloch insurgent groups,” he said.

Shafqat added that they have ample evidence of the external State support to these terrorist groups by anti Pakistan elements and Islamabad will utilize all possible means to defeat this externally sponsored terrorism.

“Over the last decade, thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives or have been injured as a result of these state-sponsored terrorist attacks by our neighbor including the most gruesome terrorist attack against school children in Peshawar by TTP that resulted in 142 innocent children losing their lives,” he added.

In a deadly terrorist attack in a peaceful neighbourhood of Lahore on 21 June 2021, many innocent people lost their lives and over 24 were critically injured.  The terrorist incident shook Lahore, the 2nd largest city and economic hub of Pakistan. 

“A deeper investigation, supported by international cooperation, led by the Law Enforcement Agencies to a network of facilitators, financers, abettors, and ultimately the master-minds of the deadly terrorist attack. They were from our neighbour and those terrorists were controlled by the intelligence agency of our adversary. In this regard, we have shared a comprehensive data-based evidence in the dossier, comprising audio-visual recording, money trails, financial records and documents unearthed by virtue of detailed forensic analysis of every shred of evidence collected by Pakistan’s Law enforcement agencies,” said Pakistani official.

“We have also caught red-handed serving naval commander Kulbhushan Jhadav, who has confessed to committing the terrorist activities in Pakistan. 

:We have provided irrefutable evidence of such externally sponsored terrorism to the international community and the UN Security Council. We hope and expect that the international community will take decisive steps to address this threat. There must be no double standards in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Shafqat added that his country’s expects the international community to clearly differentiate between the victims and perpetrators of terrorism and urged the international community to exert pressure on our neighbor to stop state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan.  

"Unfortunately, the rules of our neighboring State are guided by a supremacist ideology that has mainstreamed Islamophobia and bigotry against minorities, particularly Muslims, in the political discourse.

“We hope that the international community will play its due role in ending such attempts by our neighbor to undermine the peace and security of the entire region,” he concluded.