Jaishankar slams Pakistan; says 'exporter' of terror painting themselves as 'victims' of terror

India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday slammed Pakistan and without taking the name of the country said, "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."

His comments were in context to the urgent need for adoption of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism(CCIT) that calls on a common definition of terrorism but haven't made much progress as "membership of the UN still wrestling with certain foundational principles" EAM said.

CCIT was proposed by India in 1996 and in his first address to United Nations General assembly since becoming the PM in 2014, PM Modi called for early adoption of the convention.

EAM Jaishankar who was speaking at the 19th Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture also recalled the developments of last week over Pakistani flip- flops on the presence of United Nations listed terrorists Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim via its own SRO--Statutory regulatory order.

He said, "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."

Explaining, without referring to Islamabad that "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."

Pakistan after issuing the SRO that listed the United Nations terror list of 1267 committee came out with a clarification that it doesn't mean acceptance of terrorist on its territory or territories occupied by it. The 1267 UN list, which has maximum number of terrorists from Pakistan also mentions the name of Masood Azhar responsible for Pulwama terror attack and Dawood Ibrahim the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai attacks.

While expressing hope that the "struggle against terror and those who aid and abet it is a work in progress", EAM said, "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 drew parallels between terrorism and the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic saying, "terrorism was not born on 9/11, nor has the Covid-19 been the only pandemic."

Elaborating, that "terrorism is a 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. "