New Delhi: By continuing the fight against terrorism, India has once again raised its voice in the United Nations. India said on Wednesday that the global community must not lose sight of the ease with which the Haqqani Network and its supporters, “especially the Pakistani authorities”, have worked along with terror groups in South Asia as it asserted that the UN chief’s report on the Islamic State should also cover activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad that perpetrate attacks from safe haven in Pakistan.
The UN Security Council held a briefing on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’ and considered the 12th report of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the threat posed by ISIL to international peace and security.
The report has said that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan is currently assessed to have between 1,000 and 2,200 fighters in Afghanistan spread across several provinces and is expected to continue to target Kabul and provincial capitals in future attacks.
Shihab al-Muhajir, announced as the group’s new leader in June 2020, reportedly heads ISIL operations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and States in Central Asia. He is said to have had an earlier affiliation with and to maintain familial ties to the Haqqani Network, the report has said.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said that the UNSG’s report provides an account of activities of ISIL-K, including the appointment of its new leader al-Mujahir, who has close links with the proscribed Haqqani Network and earlier operated in the Af-Pak region as an al-Qaeda commander.
“It is essential that we don’t lose sight of the ease with which the proscribed Haqqani Network and its supporters, especially the Pakistani authorities, have worked along with prominent terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda, ISIL-K, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, etc. in South Asia,” Tirumurti said in his strongly-worded speech that hit out at Pakistan.
“Al-Qaeda, Haqqani Network, JeM and LeT continue to flourish and operate with impunity in the Af-Pak region, he said. India is of the view that the UNSG’s periodic report on ISIL “should also cover activities of the proscribed terrorist entities under ISIL and al-Qaeda Sanctions regime like Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Pakistan based terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and frontal organisations that raise funds for their activities.