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Hindustan Times
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
The politics of UN terror proscriptions
An Indian delegation presented evidence against The Resistance Front (TRF) to UN counter-terrorism officials in New York, for designating TRF as a terror group under the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1267 sanctions list. TRF, which claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack before retracting, is a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — a Pakistan-based UN-designated terror group under the 1267 sanctions list. UNSCR 1267, adopted in 1999 by the UN Security Council (UNSC), began the sanctions regime against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and blacklisted terrorists and terror groups in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden and his associates. In 2011, a separate Taliban Sanctions Committee was constituted by UNSC to deal exclusively with the Taliban, which India chaired during our recent stint at the UNSC (between 2021 and 2022). Despite being proscribed by UNSC, the world still seeks to normalise relations with the Taliban-led government — even as acting Prime Minister (PM) Hasan Akhund, acting first deputy PM Abdul Ghani Baradar and acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi are still on the Taliban sanctions list. Even as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria — remains on the 1267 Sanctions list, US President Donald Trump warmly shook hands with its former leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, now the interim President of Syria. And, in Pakistan, army generals attended funerals of terrorists affiliated with UN-sanctioned groups killed during Operation Sindoor. Welcome to the real world of UN's terror proscriptions! The UN has not usually been rational or logical or even legal, but mainly political in dealing with terrorism. The counter-terrorism architecture put together by UNSC after the 9/11 attack in 2001 is disintegrating rapidly. An example is how the zero-tolerance-to-terror stance is understood by the West. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently reiterated this in connection with Operation Sindoor and India's strategy against terror going forward. We are also now sending all-party delegations to convey the country's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism. In 2022, when I was the chair of the UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) — which has all 15 members of the UNSC — we were jointly drafting a statement of the chair to reflect the views of the entire CTC. As per India's policy, I suggested inserting the words zero tolerance to terror into the text. Much to my surprise, some of the western countries opposed its insertion since their understanding was that when countries go after terrorists, the policy of zero tolerance will give them the licence to violate the human rights of the terrorists! For them, the human rights of terrorists became more important than the people they have killed. Since I refused to accept a chair's statement without zero tolerance for terrorism, I delivered that statement as my own statement instead of that of the chair. Is it any surprise then that the West did not support counter-terrorism measures undertaken by India after Pahalgam? At the same time, zero tolerance to terror justifies Israelis killing 55,000 Palestinians over 20 months in retaliation to the Hamas terror attack of October 2023. The number of Pakistani terrorists and Pakistan-based terrorist organisations in the 1267 sanctions list, including LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), is instructive. More than 150 of the listings have references to Pakistan, a huge number for a country that the international community hesitates to call out for sponsoring terror. Strangely, designating a terrorist under 1267 is no guarantee that their country will punish or imprison them. UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, founder of LeT, enjoys official protection and roams about freely in Pakistan inciting people to attack India and Kashmir. Pakistan brazenly hid Osama bin Laden next to their military base in Abbottabad till the US hunted him down. India's attempts to enlist terrorists in the 1267 sanctions list have been thwarted in the UNSC by the likes of China, no doubt due to their 'iron-clad' friendship with Pakistan. While we call out the double standards of the West in combatting terror, it has been the West, and more particularly the US, which has broadly supported India in the UNSC on terror-related issues. After a decade of China blocking India's proposal to sanction JeM chief Masood Azhar, he was finally listed in May 2019 but without mentioning any of his links with terror activities in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir or even the Pulwama attack. Soon after, when India was in the UNSC in 2021-22, it proposed several names for the 1267 sanctions list. The US joined us as a co-signatory. Predictably, it was blocked by China. Finally, the UNSC approved the listing of Abdul Rehman Makki, deputy amir/chief of LeT — the first listing with India as a proposer in the Council. Saeed was also the first to be expressly named for terrorist acts in J&K. It was a blow for Pakistan. One of the remaining terrorists on our list was killed in Operation Sindoor. Further, Makki himself is reported to have died last year. One only hopes that Makki does not reappear like Sajid Mir, a terrorist involved in the 26/11 attacks, whom Pakistanis declared was dead but only to sheepishly admit later under international pressure that he was indeed alive! Our recent attempt to list TRF under 1267 sanctions will no doubt face the double block of China and Pakistan in the Council since they jointly erased any reference to TRF in the April 25 UNSC statement on the Pahalgam terror attack. It is equally well-known that Pakistan made desperate attempts with cooked-up charges to list four Indian Hindus as terrorists under 1267 sanctions so that at least Hindus get listed. These Indians were executing Indian-grant projects in Afghanistan. The Council rejected Pakistan's request, not once but twice. It is not a coincidence that the Pahalgam terrorists asked for the religion of the tourists and shot dead the Hindus. As the track record of Pakistan's duplicity in fighting terror keeps lengthening, international patience keeps shortening. Operation Sindoor has exposed yet again their culpability. TS Tirumurti is a former ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. The views expressed are personal
Free Malaysia Today
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Islamabad says more than 100,000 Afghans left in April
Convoys of Afghan families have been heading to the border since the start of April when the deadline to leave expired. (AP pic) ISLAMABAD : More than 100,000 Afghans have left Pakistan in the past three weeks, the interior ministry said Tuesday, after Islamabad announced the widespread cancellation of residence permits. Calling Afghans 'terrorists and criminals', the Pakistan government launched its mass eviction campaign on April 1. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, which Islamabad blames for fuelling a rise in border attacks. The interior ministry told AFP that '100,529 Afghans have left in April'. Convoys of Afghan families have been heading to the border since the start of April when the deadline to leave expired, crossing into a country mired in a humanitarian crisis. 'I was born in Pakistan and have never been to Afghanistan,' 27-year-old Allah Rahman told AFP at the Torkham border on Saturday. 'I was afraid the police might humiliate me and my family. Now, we're heading back to Afghanistan out of sheer helplessness,' he said. Afghanistan's prime minister Hasan Akhund on Saturday condemned the 'unilateral measures' taken by its neighbour after Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar flew to Kabul for a day-long visit to discuss the returns. Akhund urged the Pakistani government to 'facilitate the dignified return of Afghan refugees'. Afghans in Pakistan have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities, with many of those forcibly returned living in Sindh and Punjab provinces. Many people are leaving voluntarily, choosing to depart instead of face deportation, but the UN refugee agency UNHCR said that in April alone, more arrests and detentions took place in Pakistan – 12,948 – than in all of last year. Children deported Pakistan's security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan as they battle a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest, and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest. Last year was the deadliest in Pakistan in a decade. The government frequently accuses Afghan nationals of taking part in attacks and blames Kabul for allowing militants to take refuge on its soil, a charge Taliban leaders deny. Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades fleeing successive wars, as well as hundreds of thousands since the return of the Taliban government in 2021. Some Pakistanis have grown weary of hosting a large Afghan population as security and economic woes deepen, and the deportation campaign has widespread support. 'They came here for refuge but ended up taking jobs, opening businesses. They took jobs from Pakistanis who are already struggling,' 41-year-old hairdresser Tanveer Ahmad told AFP as he gave a customer a shave. More than half of Afghans being deported were children, the UNHCR said on Friday. The women and girls among those crossing were entering a country where they are banned from education beyond secondary school and barred from many sectors of work. In the first phase of returns in 2023, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans were forced across the border in the space of a few weeks. In the second phase announced in March, the Pakistan government cancelled the residence permits of more than 800,000 Afghans and warned thousands more awaiting relocation to other countries to leave by the end of April. 'Afghans take on jobs Pakistanis consider shameful, like collecting garbage,' a shopkeeper told AFP on the condition of anonymity. 'Who will do that after they're gone?'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Clip shows Eid shopping frenzy, not Afghan store looting
"In Punjab, on the one hand, the Pakistani government is forcibly deporting Afghans, while on the other hand, the Punjabi people are looting Afghan goods as booty," reads the Urdu-language caption to the video shared on X on April 6, 2025. It shows people shouting and scrambling to get heaps of wrapped-up clothes in a boutique. Similar posts surfaced elsewhere on X following Islamabad's strict deportation campaign (archived link). Afghans in Pakistan have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities, with many of those forcibly returned living in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, which Islamabad blames for fuelling a rise in border attacks. Afghanistan's prime minister Hasan Akhund condemned the "unilateral measures" taken by its neighbour and urged the Pakistani government to "facilitate the dignified return of Afghan refugees". Although the circulating clip is unrelated to the deportations, comments to the false posts suggest people were misled. "These poor Afghan shopkeepers are being oppressed, Punjab is so greedy. Why oppress the poor? Punjabi people consider themselves Muslims, theft is not the work of Muslims," a wrote. "The same moral decline that the rulers of the country are suffering from is now clearly visible in Pakistani society," another said. A reverse image search of the video's keyframes on Google led to a post on X post from Iftikhar Firdous, an editor at local news outlet The Khorasan Diary, who said the clip has been misrepresented (archived link.) He shared a link to the original TikTok post on March 21 from a user named Shafiq Ahmad (archived here and here). A review of Ahmad's account found he shared another video on April 7 clarifying the earlier clip does not show an Afghan-owned business being looted (archived link). The video's narration says it shows customers scrambling to get hold of in-demand items at a clothes shop called "Yahya Zakriya Sajjad Fashion Arts" in Punjab's capital Lahore days before Eid. He shared similar other videos in his profile (archived here and here). AFP reached out to the store and one of its owners, Sajjad Sheikh, said Ahmad is an employee. "The video was shot in the days leading up to Eid, it shows the Eid rush," Sheikh, who identified himself as Pakistani, told AFP. "It does not show anything related to the Afghan deportations or looting of Afghan businesses." Photos of the shop geotagged on Google Maps show a similar background layout seen in the video (archived link). Similar videos of Eid shopping sprees in Pakistan have been previously shared online (archived link).
AFP
25-04-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Clip shows Eid shopping frenzy, not Afghan store looting
"In Punjab, on the one hand, the Pakistani government is forcibly deporting Afghans, while on the other hand, the Punjabi people are looting Afghan goods as booty," reads the Urdu-language caption to the video shared on X on April 6, 2025. It shows people shouting and scrambling to get heaps of wrapped-up clothes in a boutique. Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 21, 2025 Similar posts surfaced elsewhere on X following Islamabad's strict deportation campaign (archived link). Afghans in Pakistan have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities, with many of those forcibly returned living in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, which Islamabad blames for fuelling a rise in border attacks. Afghanistan's prime minister Hasan Akhund condemned the "unilateral measures" taken by its neighbour and urged the Pakistani government to "facilitate the dignified return of Afghan refugees". Although the circulating clip is unrelated to the deportations, comments to the false posts suggest people were misled. "These poor Afghan shopkeepers are being oppressed, Punjab is so greedy. Why oppress the poor? Punjabi people consider themselves Muslims, theft is not the work of Muslims," a wrote. "The same moral decline that the rulers of the country are suffering from is now clearly visible in Pakistani society," another said. A reverse image search of the video's keyframes on Google led to a post on X post from Iftikhar Firdous, an editor at local news outlet The Khorasan Diary, who said the clip has been misrepresented (archived link.) He shared a link to the original TikTok post on March 21 from a (archived here and here). A review of Ahmad's account found he shared another video on April 7 clarifying the earlier clip does not show an Afghan-owned business being looted link). He shared similar other videos in his profile (archived here and here). Image Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and Shafiq Ahmad's TikTok post ," Photos of the shop geotagged on Google Maps show a similar background layout seen in the (archived link). of Eid shopping sprees in Pakistan have been previously shared online (archived link).
Gulf Today
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Over 100,000 Afghans left Pak in last 3 weeks: Ministry
More than 100,000 Afghans have left Pakistan in the past three weeks, the interior ministry said on Tuesday, after Islamabad announced the widespread cancellation of residence permits. Calling Afghans 'terrorists and criminals', the Pakistan government launched its mass eviction campaign on April 1. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, which Islamabad blames for fuelling a rise in border attacks. The interior ministry told reporters that '100,529 Afghans have left in April'. Convoys of Afghan families have been heading to the border since the start of April when the deadline to leave expired, crossing into a country mired in a humanitarian crisis. 'I was born in Pakistan and have never been to Afghanistan,' 27-year-old Allah Rahman told reporters at the Torkham border on Saturday. 'I was afraid the police might humiliate me and my family. Now we're heading back to Afghanistan out of sheer helplessness.' Afghanistan's prime minister Hasan Akhund on Saturday condemned the 'unilateral measures' taken by its neighbour after Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar flew to Kabul for a day-long visit to discuss the returns. Akhund urged the Pakistani government to 'facilitate the dignified return of Afghan refugees'. Afghans in Pakistan have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities, with many of those forcibly returned living in Sindh and Punjab provinces. Many people are leaving voluntarily, choosing to depart instead of face deportation, but the UN refugee agency UNHCR said that in April alone, more arrests and detentions took place in Pakistan — 12,948 — than in all of last year. Pakistan's security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan as they battle a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest, and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest. Last year was the deadliest in Pakistan in a decade. The government frequently accuses Afghan nationals of taking part in attacks and blames Kabul for allowing militants to take refuge on its soil, a charge Taliban leaders deny. Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades fleeing successive wars, as well as hundreds of thousands since the return of the Taliban government in 2021. Some Pakistanis have grown weary of hosting a large Afghan population as security and economic woes deepen, and the deportation campaign has widespread support. 'They came here for refuge but ended up taking jobs, opening businesses. They took jobs from Pakistanis who are already struggling,' 41-year-old hairdresser Tanveer Ahmad told reporters as he gave a customer a shave. More than half of Afghans being deported were children, the UNHCR said on Friday. The women and girls among those crossing were entering a country where they are banned from education beyond secondary school and barred from many sectors of work. In the first phase of returns in 2023, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans were forced across the border in the space of a few weeks. In the second phase announced in March, the Pakistan government cancelled the residence permits of more than 800,000 Afghans and warned thousands more awaiting relocation to other countries to leave by the end of April. 'Afghans take on jobs Pakistanis consider shameful, like collecting garbage,' a shopkeeper told reporters on the condition of anonymity. 'Who will do that after they're gone?' Pushed out of Pakistan where she was born, Nazmine Khan's first experience of her country, Afghanistan, was in a sweltering tent at a border camp. 'We never thought we would return to Afghanistan,' said the 15-year-old girl, who has little idea of what will become of her or her family, only that she is likely to have fewer freedoms. 'When our parents told us we had to leave, we cried,' added Khan. Having nowhere to go in Afghanistan, she and six other family members shared a stifling tent in the Omari camp near the Torkham border point. Agence France-Presse
