Pakistan has mounted a defence of terrorism asserting that when \u201cpeople living under foreign occupation\u201d resort to it, that is \u201clegitimate\u201d and it tried to mix Kashmir with Palestine.<\/p>\n
India dismissed the remarks at the UN Security Council on Tuesday \u201cwith contempt\u201d.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Deputy Permanent Representative R. Ravindra said: \u201cThere was a remark of habitual nature by one delegation referring to union territories that are integral parts of my country. I will treat these commands with contempt and not dignify them with a response in the interest of time.”<\/p>\n
Regardless of the topic at hand, Pakistan brings up the Kashmir issue at the UN, but finds no traction.<\/p>\n
While \u201cPakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations\u201d, Islamabad\u2019\u2019s Permanent Representative Munir Akram said that \u201cunder international law, the struggle of people living under foreign occupation for self-determination and national liberation is legitimate and cannot be equated with terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
He took an apparent swipe at the US and other that countries that have taken a strong universal stand against terrorism and supported India when it came under terrorist attacks from Pakistan or Israel when terrorism struck the nation from many sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome in this council have offered protection to their allies who are oppressing occupied people in Palestine and in Kashmir,” he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the 26\/11 Mumbai attack naming the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) while pointing out that the Council and the General Assembly \u201chave repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Akram said that \u201cunder the UN Charter, states have the right of self-defence against attacks on their sovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d, but \u201ca state which is in forcible occupation of a foreign territory cannot invoke the right to self-defence against those whose territory it has illegally occupied\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is this facile logic of Pakistan and some other countries that terrorists deemed by a country to be \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d are not terrorists that has impeded the adoption of an international convention against terrorism proposed by India.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny attempt to create a false equivalence between Israel, the occupying power, and the Palestinians, the victims of this occupation, is untenable legally morally and politically,” Akram asserted.<\/p>\n
While vehemently condemning Israel\u2019s air strikes on Hamas-held Gaza, Akram did not condemn Hamas for its terrorist attacks on Israelis that killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in more than 200 taken hostage.<\/p>\n
Without naming Washington, Akram directed another criticism at it for its veto of the Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire or a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret that the Security Council has been unable to issue a call for a ceasefire,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA heavy responsibility rests on those who contribute to the prolongation of this conflict.”<\/p>\n