India abstains on UNGA Afghanistan resolution; calls for preventing LeT, JeM exploiting territory

United Nations: While abstaining on a General Assembly resolution on Afghanistan, India has called on the international community to prevent Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and their sponsors from exploiting that country’s territory.

While explaining the abstention on Monday, India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish said: “The international community must direct its coordinated efforts towards ensuring that entities and individuals designated by the UN Security Council, the Al Qaeda and their affiliates, ISIL and their affiliates, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, along with their regional sponsors who facilitate their operations, no longer exploit the Afghan territory for terrorist activities.”

He noted that Afghanistan had issued a strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist massacre in April.

The attack was carried out by The Resistance Front, a group behind which the Pakistan-based LeT operates.

The resolution that asked the Taliban to end its repressive policies, especially those directed against women, was carried with 116 votes.

The US and Israel voted against it, while 12 countries abstained.

Harish said that the policy towards Afghanistan should have both incentives and disincentives and it should be reflected in the resolution.

Giving the reason for India’s abstention, he said, “An approach focused only on punitive measures, in our view, is unlikely to succeed”.

“A ‘business as usual’ approach, without new and targeted initiatives, is unlikely to deliver the outcomes the international community envisions for the Afghan people,” he said.

He spoke of the diplomatic interactions with Afghanistan, which India has not recognised.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke with Acting Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in May, after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met him in Dubai to discuss regional and bilateral issues.

“We welcome the strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 22, 2025, by the Afghan side”, Harish said.

He said: “India’s immediate priorities in Afghanistan include the provision of humanitarian assistance and the implementation of capacity-building initiatives for the Afghan people.”

He mentioned the food, medical, educational and other aid India has been providing Afghanistan.

Germany sponsored the resolution, and Permanent Representative Antje Leendertse said her country, along with others, “remains gravely concerned about the dire human rights situation in Afghanistan — especially for Afghan women and girls”.

“The edicts imposed by the Taliban against women and girls amount to a near-total erasure of their rights,” she said.

At the same time, she said, “Germany acknowledges that there is no alternative to engagement with the Taliban, and we will continue to actively contribute to the UN-led Doha Process”.

The Doha Process is a series of meetings under UN aegis in Doha with several countries, including India, trying to get the Taliban to observe international standards and normalise relations.

About US vote against the resolution, diplomat Jonathan Shrier said: “We cannot continue propping up the Taliban while simultaneously demanding they meet their international commitments and respect Afghanistan’s international obligations.”

“The existing approach to humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people is not sustainable and will continue to fail to yield the intended results,” he said.

–IANS