The Congress party has exhorted the international community to understand and support India’s stand on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday. Citing multiple loans and bailout packages to Pakistan in the recent months, which Kharge claimed would be spent on their military, he dismissed any attempt to equate Pakistan, a “perpetrator of terror,” with India, a “victim of terror.” “Pakistan is the perpetrator of terror. India is a victim of terror. They cannot be equated. They should not be hyphenated,” Kharge said in a post on X.
Criticising the recent loans and packages approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Pakistan, Kharge said that the funds will be used on Pakistan’s rogue Army, which will use it to unleash terror on Indians. He further criticised the naming of Pakistan as the vice-chair of the 15-member United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee and chair of the Taliban Sanctions Committee for 2025, calling it “most unfortunate, ill-informed and unacceptable.”
Kharge urged the international community to see merit in India’s demand to put Pakistan back in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), while also urging the Indian government to take appropriate diplomatic actions to de-hyphenate both countries on the global stage. “The international community must see merit in India’s case that Pakistan should be included back in the FATF grey list for monitoring of its terror financing,” his post read. Talking about the FATF grey list, Kharge said that Pakistan has been in the list three times, in 2008, 2012 and 2018, with two times being under the former Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government.
“Making Pakistan accountable for its sins is a necessity not just for India, but for the interests of the international community. It is perhaps worth reminding that the most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, responsible for 9/11, was found and eliminated in Pakistan. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the chief planner of 9/11, was also a Pakistani,” Kharge’s post added. Earlier today, Congress leader Pawan Khera decried the “continuous legitimisation of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism” by the international community, criticising Pakistan chairing the UNSC committee and getting loans from international banks and funds.
Khera also said that loans to Pakistan and its role in the UNSC committee also reflect on India’s “foreign policy collapse.” “On June 4 Pakistan gets elected as Chairman of the UNSC Taliban Sanctions Committee and Vice Chairman of the UNSC Counter Terrorism Committee. Of course, this is the sad story of our foreign policy collapse, but how can the global community allow this continuous legitimisation of sponsorship of terrorism by Pakistan,” Khera said in a post on X.
Pakistan is set to chair the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban Sanctions Committee in 2025, which is responsible for enforcing sanctions, asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargo against people or organisations which are associated with the Taliban. The country will also serve as the vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee this year, which was established after the September 11 attacks in the US. The committee looks to implement various measures to counter terrorist activities across the world. Following Operation Sindoor, India’s response to the heinous Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people, India launched an international diplomatic outreach, sending multiple members of Parliament from various political parties to multiple world capitals.
