Nations exporting terrorism attempting to paint themselves as victims of terror: EAM

Taking a dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday said that countries that have turned the production of terrorists into a primary export have attempted to paint themselves as victims of terror.
“19 years from the tragedy of ‘9/11′ and 12 years from our own ’26/11’, we have a range of mechanisms in place to contend with terrorism. These include the Financial Action Task Force, various UN Sanctions Committees and the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate,” EAM said 19th Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture.

Without naming Pakistan, the Minister said: “But we still lack a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, with the membership of the UN still wrestling with certain foundational principles. All the while, States that have turned the production of terrorists into a primary export have attempted, by dint of bland denials, to paint themselves as victims of terror.”

Jaishankar said sustained pressure through international mechanisms has eventually compelled a “state complicit in aiding, abetting, training and directing terror groups” to “grudgingly acknowledge the presence of wanted terrorists.”

“But as we have seen last week, sustained pressure through international mechanisms to prevent the movement of funds for terror groups and their front agencies can work. It has eventually compelled a state complicit in aiding, abetting, training and directing terror groups and associated criminal syndicates to grudgingly acknowledge the presence of wanted terrorists and organized crime leaders on its territory,” said EAM.
Further, Jaishankar said the struggle against terror and those who aid and abet it is a work in progress.

“It remains for the international system to create the necessary mechanisms to shut down the structures that support and enable terrorism, whether in South Asia or across the globe,” he said.

In a bid to avoid a demotion from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list to the blacklist during the upcoming October plenary meeting, Pakistan last week imposed sanctions on more than 88 terrorists associated with different terrorist groups, including Daesh, al-Qaida, and Taliban, Pakistan media reported.

According to the details, the government has also seized the bank accounts and properties of the terrorists in the country. They have also been banned from traveling aboard, Ary News had reported.

Earlier this month, Pakistan has submitted its initial draft report to the joint group of FATF, showing compliance of the remaining 13 points out of 27 action points pertaining to terror funding, ahead of the plenary meet scheduled for October, The News International had reported.

EAM Jaishankar stated that terrorism is cancer that “potentially affects everyone” just like pandemic.
“We have long known intellectually that terrorism is cancer that potentially affects everyone, just as pandemics potentially impact upon all humanity. And yet, in both cases, globalized focused responses to either challenge have tended to emerge only when there has been sufficient disruption created by a ‘spectacular’ event,” he said. 

Source: ANI