Pakistan urges world not to be selective in fighting terrorism

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan assured the international community that it was committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms because it believed that a selective approach would not work.

At a UN meeting on "Measures to Eliminate Interna tional Terrorism", Pakistan's Permanent Representative Ambassador Munir Akram said that the US-Taliban agreement could also help eliminate terrorism. Pakistan supports the Afghan peace process and played a key role in finalising the US-Taliban deal in February this year. Now, Islamabad is also backing US efforts to push forward an intra-Afghan dialogue that Washington hopes will end 19 years of war and destruction.

"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," Ambassador Akram said. Underlining Pakistan's commitment to defeating terrorism, he said: "Terrorism must be defeated comprehensively, everywhere, in all its manifestations. It cannot be addressed selectively."

Pakistan has long emphasised the need to combat state-backed terrorism as well, like in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. Islamabad argues that repressive policies encourage terrorism. In the UN, Pakistan aligned itself with the statements delivered by Saudi Arabia on behalf of the members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and by Iran on behalf of the NonAligned Movement (NAM).

Both stress the need to defeat terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination.

Ambassador Akram told the world body that global cooperation had succeeded in defeating the "core" of the major terrorist organisations - Al Qaeda and the militant Islamic State group - yet, their associates and affiliates had survived and spread across the world.

"Terrorism is manifesting itself in various new and mutated forms which are not being effectively addressed," the ambassador warned. -APP