Guterres wants India, Pakistan to work together on terrorism concerns: Spokesperson

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants India and Pakistan to work together on their concerns over international terrorism, according to his Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq.

“It’s important for all of the countries, including India and Pakistan, to work together to deal with any of the concerns that they face regarding international terrorism”, he said on Monday.

Haq was responding to a question from a Palestinian journalist who had turned Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Munir Akram’s oblique mention of a “principal adversary” into a reference to India.

While speaking at the Security Council after it voted to extend the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Akram did not name the “adversary” when he brought up the hijacking of the Jaffer Express that the Baloch Liberation Army claimed to have carried out.

Without naming India or any country, Akram only said, “We also have evidence that this attack was initiated and financed by our principal adversary, using its proxies in Afghanistan”.

Whether he meant India or Iran, which shares a border with Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, Akram diplomatically avoided naming any country to avoid giving it an opportunity to exercise the right of reply that would have aired Pakistan’s own role in international terrorism.

He, however, named Afghanistan as a link to the hijacking of Afghanistan.

He asserted, “During the attack, the terrorists were in direct contact with their ‘handlers’ in Afghanistan, from where the attack was planned and directed”.

Akram asserted that the attacks were meant “to disrupt Pakistan’s cooperation with China and the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”.

In the hijacking at a mountain pass that Akram blamed also on the Majeed Brigade, 25 passengers were killed while 33 terrorists died in the army rescue operation. According to Pakistani officials.

The Security Council unanimously extended the mandate for UNAM for a year.

UNAMA was set up in 2002 to provide help to Afghans, but its relations with the Taliban rulers are fraught because of their restrictions on women.

–IANS