Mr. Chairman,
1- My congratulations on your election to Chair this Sixth Committee during this landmark 75th session of the General Assembly.
2- Pakistan aligns itself with the statements delivered by Saudi Arabia on behalf of the members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
3- Over the course of the last few decades, terrorism has claimed thousands of lives, caused large scale destruction and disrupted national and regional peace and stability across the world. The international community has adopted extensive legal administrative and security measures to combat and eliminate terrorism. Global cooperation has succeeded in defeating the “core” of the major terrorist organizations – Al-Qaeda and ISIS (Daesh). Yet, their associates and affiliates have survived and terrorism has spread across the world. And, terrorism is manifesting itself in various new and mutated forms which are not being effectively addressed.
4- Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We have been the target of cross-border terrorism for decades. Pakistan has lost 70,000 lives and suffered over $120 billion in economic losses. Our people and our security forces have fought back with courage and coherence. We have achieved unparalleled success in defeating terrorism within our borders.
5- The US-Taliban agreement and the intra-Afghan negotiations initiated recently will hopefully yield a political solution. Peace in Afghanistan will create conditions conducive to eliminating terrorism from our region.
Mr. Chairman,
6- Terrorism must be defeated comprehensively, everywhere, in all its manifestations. It cannot be addressed selectively.
7- It is essential to examine why – despite global strategies, mechanisms and interventions – terrorist violence has proliferated and now appears endemic. I would like to offer some answers.
8- First, an insufficient effort has been made to distinguish terrorism from the legitimate struggle of peoples for self-determination and national liberation. This is the long-held view of the OIC and the NAM. Legitimate freedom struggles are entitled, under international law, to resort to “all available means” to secure their right to self-determination. History reveals that such popular struggles against colonial and foreign occupation have been often equated with terrorism. Yet, they have always triumphed.
9- Our neighbor, India, has sought to suppress the legitimate struggle of the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir for the self-determination for seven decades. This right is inherent; it was promised to the Kashmiri people by the Security Council, and by India and Pakistan. The Kashmiri struggle cannot be suppressed by India’s attempt to equate it with terrorism.
10- Second, the global counter-terrorism endeavour has failed to address “state terrorism”. The suppression of self-determination and foreign occupation is the worst form of state terrorism.
11- Since 1990, India’s occupation and oppression in Kashmir has killed over 100,000 Kashmiris, widowed 22,000 women, orphaned 110,000 children and raped more than 11,000 Kashmiri women. India’s state terrorism has intensified since 5 August 2019. All Kashmiri political leaders and activists were incarcerated; 13,000 Kashmiri youth abducted and many tortured; peaceful protests put down violently, with pellet guns that blind even small children, collective punishments imposed with the destruction of entire villages and neighbourhoods, and hundreds of Kashmiri youth extra-judicially killed in “fake encounters”. Not one Indian soldier has been punished for these crimes which are well recorded in UN, civil society and media reports. Such state terrorism must be punished.
12- Third, “state terrorism” also manifests itself in the sponsorship of terrorism against adversary states. Today, Pakistan is the victim of attacks by terrorist groups, financed and organized by India, from across our western borders. These groups are responsible for some of the most gruesome terrorist attacks in Pakistan including the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, which killed 145 of our innocent children; the attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi and last April on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
13- Fourth, although every UN resolution states that “terrorism should not be linked with any religion”, the use of phrases like “jihadis”, “Islamists”, radical Islam”, give the lie to such protestations. There are no non-Muslim groups on the Security Council’s “terrorism” lists. The pronunciations of some political leaders in certain countries, which pride themselves on their “civilization”, feed into this anti-Islamic prejudice. When a crime is committed by a Muslim, it is immediately categorized as “terrorism”; when committed by a non-Muslim, it is simply a crime.
14. It is not as if there is any shortage of non-Muslim terrorists or extremists. There is indeed a surge in the emergence of right-wing, extremist and fascist movements in several countries which are responsible for a larger number of terrorist and violent acts than those committed by Muslims in their countries.
15. Such Islamophobia is in fact state policy in BJP-RSS ruled India. Inspired by the Nazis, “Hitler’s Hindus” are embarked on the hate project of purifying “Mother India” from its Islamic legacy by forcibly converting, expelling or rendering stateless, India’s 200 million Muslims. Two million Muslims have been made stateless in Assam; Muslim migrants called “termites”. Organized pogroms committed against Muslims – from Gujrat in 2002 to Delhi in 2020; Muslims lynched openly by “Cow vigilantes”; Muslims blamed for spreading COVID by the BJP-RSS leaders and the mainstream media.
16. The RSS and associated Hindu terror groups, as well as similar fascist groups elsewhere, deserve to be placed on a comprehensive list of terrorists. As proposed in the OIC statement, the 1267 Committee should enlarge its lists to include these right-wing terrorist and fascist groups, like the RSS.
17. Fifth, to eliminate terrorism, it is essential to address the root causes of terrorism, what is euphemistically referred to as “conditions conducive to terrorism”. These causes are: injustice, oppression, foreign intervention and occupation and suppression of the right of peoples to self-determination. The proliferating conflicts across the world are a clear signal that the UN and the international community have failed to address these root causes of conflicts and accompanying manifestations of terrorist violence. My Prime Minister has urged the Secretary-General to convene Summit meetings to address these conflicts.
18. Finally, Mr. Chairman, we must address the new tools of terrorism. Social media has empowered violent extremist movements and terrorist groups to network and organize online. Technical tools, like crypto currencies, are used to transfer funds and the dark web to communicate and facilitate the organization and execution of terrorism. The UN, along with the relevant technology companies, have a responsibility to curb such misuse of modern tools and technology for terrorism and the proliferation of hate, xenophobia and Islamophobia.
Mr. Chairman,
19. Pakistan looks forward to the forthcoming review of the UN’s Counter-terrorism strategy to address the shortcomings of our current policies and actions during the current session of the General Assembly.
I thank you.
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