‘India’s recklessness endangering peace in South Asia and beyond’

India using ‘false flag operations’ for electoral gains, Pakistani envoy tells Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament

GENEVA/ UNITED NATIONS:

Pakistan has warned the international community that India, emboldened by supply of advanced weapons and technologies, was operationalising offensive doctrines into war-fighting strategies that threaten peace in South Asia and beyond.

Speaking in the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD), Ambassador Khalil Hashmi said India was pursuing policies of hegemony, subversion and domination over its neighbours, all driven by an extremist ideology and hyper-nationalism.

“There is an unmistakable pattern and method adopted by the Indian ruling party — staging ‘false flag operations’, externalising blame and manipulating national sentiment to win elections,” the Pakistani envoy told the 65-member panel mandated to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements.

“This recklessness endangers regional peace and security in South Asia,” he said.

While pushing for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, Ambassador Hashmi said India continues to defy with impunity the 15-member body’s resolutions by further entrenching its occupation of an internationally recognised disputed territory — Jammu and Kashmir.

“A self-professed largest democracy in the world, it [India] has violated every tenet of international humanitarian and human rights laws; by locking down 8 million people, shutting all means of communication and rejecting calls for independent investigations into its industrial scale abuses in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

“Masquerading as a ‘victim’ of terrorism, the racial superiority-inspired BJP regime has unleashed the most brutal state-directed terrorism on Kashmiri youth, women and civilians,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding that it also financed, abetted, facilitated and directed state-sponsored acts of terrorism against its neighbours.

“To camouflage this reign of terror, India has launched the world’s most notorious disinformation campaign.”

Read more: Pakistan rejects India's 'unwarranted assertions' at UNGA

He regretted that lack of global accountability has enabled India to defy international law, norms and rules. “Unabated and generous provision of conventional, non-conventional and sensitive technologies has imbued this regime with unparalleled sense of impunity to perpetuate occupation and foment terrorism.”

Envoy Hashmi urged the international community to call out this impunity and insubordination of international legality.

“Failure to do so entails risks to regional peace and security in South Asia and beyond,” he said, adding, “This conference cannot remain oblivious to these clear and present dangers.”

The international bodies, mandated to maintain international peace and security and to control arms, have a responsibility to halt and reverse the damage done during the past few years to the rules-based global order as well as the arms control agenda, the Pakistani envoy said.

He called for the revival of global consensus and demonstrable adherence to international law to deal with these challenges.

Only through equity, non-discrimination, restraint and recognition of legitimate interests of all states, the CD and other constituents of the disarmament machinery can achieve meaningful outcomes, Ambassador Hashmi said.

Ambassador Hashmi reaffirmed Pakistan’s firm commitment to the goal of a nuclear weapons free world that is achieved in a universal, verifiable and non-discriminatory manner.

Pakistan also supports the immediate start of negotiations in the CD to conclude treaties on Negative Security Assurances (NSAs) and the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS).

“The global build-up of advanced weapons, platforms and means of delivery, together with rising tensions, highlights the urgency of dealing with nuclear risks and dangers,” the Pakistani envoy said. “This makes work on the agenda item ‘Prevention of Nuclear War’ a high area of priority for this Conference.”

Pakistan highlights Indian atrocities at UN forums

Pakistani envoy briefed the top officials of the United Nations in New York about the Indian atrocities and continuing human rights violations by Indian forces in Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Munir Akram briefed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) president on the grave human rights situation in IIOJK.

Ambassador Munir Akram called on UNSC President Tarek Ladeb of Tunisia on Friday. The meeting took place against the backdrop of the beginning of India’s two-year term as a non-permanent member of the 15-nation council.

Ambassador Akram's outreach to the UNSC president was part of the ongoing efforts to expose Indian "aggressive designs towards Pakistan and its illegal policies in Jammu and Kashmir," according to a source.

The source said that the Pakistani envoy informed Ambassador Ladeb about India's escalating ceasefire violations, possibility of another "false-flag" operation, as well as India's propaganda and fake news campaign against Pakistan.

Ambassador Akram also dilated on Pakistan's dossier on Indian-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan, including India's support and financing of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), the source added.

Separately, Ambassador Akram, who is also president of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), called for “working together” to fulfil the mandate of this principal organ of the UN to promote international economic cooperation, said a press release issued on Saturday.

"Over the years, Ecosoc has been the central body for the discussion of international economic, social and development policies," Ambassador Akram pointed out, while emphasising that the council must act through its financing for development forum later this year.