India tells UNSC not to differentiate between good and bad terrorists

The Taliban, the Haqqani Network, alQaeda, Daesh (another name for the Islamic State), LashkareToiba, JaisheMohammad, and others of their ilk are all terror organisations, many of them proscribed by the UN.

Renewing its call to the world to not differentiate between good and bad terrorists, India told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday that all terrorist groups must be treated “like terrorist organisations and their activities (be) universally opposed”.

“The Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al-Qaeda, Daesh (another name for Islamic State), Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and others of their ilk are all terror organisations, many of them proscribed by UN,” said Syed Akbaruddin, Indian permanent representative to United Nations, in a statement at UNSC discussion on the security situation in Afghanistan. He also highlighted problems posed to Afghanistan by “the resurgent forces of terrorism and extremism” finding “sanctuaries and safe haven” across the border. “Experience shows that situations in which foreign assistance is available to insurgents tend to fester and take a a greater toll,” he said.

The reference here was unmistakably to cross-border support for terrorists in Pakistan, which granted sanctuary to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, as declared repeatedly by the US as well, and Lashkar-eToiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

And the call to not differentiate between terrorists was aimed not only at Pakistan but also China — one of the five permanent members of UNSC — which is blocking the UN from designating Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Masood Azhar as a terrorist.

Criticising UN, he said it is obvious that the political process the world body had started and the sanction regimes it had split have not quite worked. “The fact that the Council has not acted on Taliban leaders as it had vowed in resolution 1988 is now well documented,” he said.