India targets Pak over terror at UNSC meeting

Meet focused on regional cooperation to promote security in Afghanistan

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These mindsets differentiate between good and bad terrorists... refuse to see reason in peace. They are mindsets reluctant to join hands in moving the region forward... SYED AKBARUDDIN, Envoy to UN

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan needs to change its “mindset” of differentiating between good and bad terrorists, India has told the UN Security Council, urging it to focus on challenges posed by terrorism emanating from the safe havens from across the border.

Only by changing this mindset, can peace come to Afghanistan, Syed Akbaruddin, Indian ambassador to the UN, said on Friday at a a special ministerial meeting.

“Terrorism and externally induced instability pose the gravest threat to Afghanistan’s peace, stability and prosperity,” he said. “And the growing arc of terrorist violence endangers our entire region.”

Terrorism has taken a huge toll on Afghanistan, Akbaruddin stressed, backing up his assertion with World Bank statistics.

Afghanistan recorded a 9.6% annual economic growth rate from 2003 to 2014, but it fell to 2.2% in 2016 as terrorist activities spiked, and it was 2.6% last year, according to the bank.

Underlining that support for voices of peace in Afghanistan alone is not enough, he said, “We must focus on addressing the challenges posed by cross border terrorism emanating from safe havens and sanctuaries to our region ...”

He told the Security Council it is India’s vision that Afghanistan regain its place and New Delhi remains committed to working closely with its regional and international partners to bring peace in the country.

“It is with this in mind that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Afghanistan on December 24, 2015 to inaugurate the Parliament building, stopped over in Lahore, Pakistan,” he said. “Unfortunately, these visits were followed by a heinous and barbaric terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase on January 1, 2016, perpetrated and planned by the very same mindsets which attack the spirit of Afghanistan every day,” he added.

“These mindsets differentiate between good and bad terrorists. These mindsets refuse to see reason in peace. They are mindsets that are reluctant to join hands in moving the region forward... These mindsets, Mr. President, need to change,” Akbaruddin said.

The meeting was presided over by Kazakhstan’s foreign minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and focused on regional cooperation to promote development and security in Afghanistan.