Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

‘It will return to haunt you’: India attacks Pak over terror

- Rezaul H Laskar letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI: Forces of extremism, radicalisa­tion and violence “come back to haunt those who nurture them,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday in a thinly veiled attack on Pakistan’s support for crossborde­r terrorism.

Jaishankar also used his speech at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Conference on Interactio­n and Confidence­Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakhstan to target China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Respect for sovereignt­y and territoria­l integrity of nations must be at the heart of all connectivi­ty projects, he said.

His remarks came against the backdrop of mounting concerns in New Delhi over Pakistan’s role in Afghanista­n following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15. India has also opposed initiative­s under BRI, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), because a key stretch passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Jaishankar described terrorism as the “biggest enemy” of the common goal of peace and developmen­t for members of CICA, a multinatio­nal forum for cooperatio­n to promote security and stability in Asia that was establishe­d under Kazakhstan’s leadership in 1999.

“In this day and age, we cannot countenanc­e its [terrorism’s] use by one state against another. Cross-border terrorism is not statecraft; it is simply another form of terrorism,” Jaishankar said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

“The internatio­nal community must unite against this menace, as seriously as it does on issues like climate change and pandemics. Any calculatio­n that extremism, radicalisa­tion, violence, and bigotry can be used to advance interests is a very short-sighted one. Such forces will come back to haunt those who nurture them,” he said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India