NEW YORK, USA: Pakistan gave UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a dossier on Indian terrorism in Pakistan, a day after India provided a dossier to some UN Security Council (UNSC) members accusing fighters from Pakistan of attempting an attack in the disputed Kashmir region.
The tit-for-tat moves come ahead of India joining the 15-member council for a two-year term starting January 1, 2021.
Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram said India violated international law, the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions by sponsoring terrorism.
He said Pakistan called on Guterres and the international community “to take note of Indian terrorism and subversion against Pakistan and to prevail on India to desist from these illegal and aggressive activities.”
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s foreign minister and military spokesperson released details of what they termed “India’s state sponsorship of terrorism”, alleging the Indian government and intelligence agencies were funding the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and ethnic Baloch armed separatist groups that conducted attacks on Pakistani soil.
The exchange of such allegations between the two South Asian countries is common, but the specificity of this round of Pakistan’s accusations, which included names of alleged Indian intelligence agents, dates of alleged meetings, audio clips of purported intercepted phone conversations and documentation of bank transfers was unprecedented in recent history.
A spokesperson for India’s mission to the United Nations in New York denied the charges.
“Pakistan can cry hoarse from the rooftops. But they cannot change the fact that they are the epicentre of terrorism,” the spokesperson alleged. “Their lies have no takers.”
India’s permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, dubbed it “dossier of lies” that enjoyed “zero credibility”.
“Concocting documents and peddling false narratives is not new to Pakistan, host to worlds largest number of UN proscribed terrorists and entities,” tweeted.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, with both claiming Kashmir in full but governing it in part. UN peacekeepers have been deployed since 1949 to observe a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in the Muslim-majority region.
India said on Monday four rebels, belonging to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad, made their way into Kashmir through a tunnel last week and opened fire when their truck was stopped for a routine inspection.
Pakistan has rejected allegations of any involvement in the alleged attack and said they were aimed at diverting attention from India’s repression of the people of Kashmir.
“The completely baseless and unsubstantiated Indian allegations are nothing but a reflection of desperate efforts on India’s part to salvage its false terrorism narrative against Pakistan and to divert international attention from its state-terrorism in IIOJK (Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) and state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan,” said Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri in a statement.
Last August, India’s Hindu nationalist government stripped Kashmir of its limited autonomy and brought the region under central rule.
Kashmiris have accused New Delhi of trying to bring demographic changes by amending laws that allow outsiders to buy land in the Himalayan region.
The UNSC blacklisted the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad in May last year after China dropped its objection to the move, ending a decade-long diplomatic impasse.
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