ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to shift its focus from combating global militant outfits like Daesh and Al Qaeda to “state terrorism brutalizing people under occupation,” such as in Palestine and Kashmir, state media reported on Wednesday.
Nuclear-armed rivals and neighbors India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over control of the disputed Kashmir region in the Himalayas. Both rule parts of Kashmir but claim it in full. Pakistan accuses India of trying to marginalize Muslims in Kashmir with its policies, which New Delhi denies.
Pakistan also does not recognize Israel and is a longtime supporter of Palestinian statehood, championing the cause of Palestine on global platforms for decades.
“The Security Council’s work on Counter-Terrorism needs urgent reform,” Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the UN General Assembly in remarks published by the Associated Press of Pakistan on Wednesday.
“The Council has also ignored terrorism by extremist and fascist organizations, including the Hindutva groups terrorizing Muslims [in India]. It has also ignored state terrorism which is used for oppressing and brutalizing people under occupation, as in the case of Palestine and Kashmir.”
The Council, the Pakistan envoy added, should set up a body to monitor and facilitate the implementation of its resolutions, “including those in abeyance for considerable time, such as those on Palestine and Kashmir.”
India is around 80 percent Hindu and about 14 percent Muslim and is the world’s third-largest Muslim country. Muslims accuse Modi’s right-wing nationalist party of pursuing a Hindu agenda that discriminates against them and directly imposes laws interfering with their faith. Modi denies this but the situation has led to sporadic violence between members of the two communities.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ongoing ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven much of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.