During the 2020 Virtual UN Counter Terror week conference India- Pakistan faced each other in a verbal rift regarding each other’s terror track records.
In the conference, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to UN, raised the issue of Kashmir as well as stated that Pakistan was “the victim of terrorist attacks mounted by organisations sponsored and financed by India and its collaborators.”
To Pakistan’s question about Kashmir, the Indian delegation led by Joint Secretary (Counter Terror) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mahaveer Singhvi, responded by stating that Pakistan should first “look inward and live up to its commitments and abandon its divisionary tactics.”
To Pakistan’s allegation about India sponsoring and financing terror attacks, the Indian delegation stated that it was”unfortunate that Pakistan, a state which sponsors cross border terrorism, continues to use every opportunity to peddle false narratives and make baseless, malicious and egregious allegations against India.”
The Indian delegation also reminded Pakistan that Prime Minister Imran Khan recently referred to Al-Qaeda’s former leader, Osama bin Laden, as a “martyr” in the Pakistan National Assembly and also publicly acknowledged the presence of up to 40,000 terrorists in Pakistan.
After the conference, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN tweeted, “Indian state terrorism relies on portraying freedom struggle of oppressed people of IOJK as terrorism.”
The Indian delegation responded to this tweet by stating that Pakistan was “seeking to portray its military, financial, logistical support to cross border terrorism against India as a freedom struggle.”
Indian representatives further said that terrorists have targeted people online and on social media to spread misinformation in form of hate speeches, fake news and doctored videos with an intent to entice vulnerable people and recruit them to follow suit.