New Delhi: On April 22, the entire India and the rest of the world were shocked and horrified by the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 innocent civilians. The terrorist group The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility for the attack and has been pointed out by numerous quarters as the perpetrators of the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam. Yet, the view and opinion of the Pakistan government towards TRF remains one of abject bewilderment.
After the Pahalgam terror attack, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) released a press statement that condemned the ghastly incident. Now, Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister has said he pushed to omit mention of terror outfit TRF from the press statement. He was speaking at the National Assembly of Pakistan on April 29 when Dar revealed that Pakistan used its position as a non-permanent member of the UNSC to change the language in the press statement which was proposed by the United States. Originally, the press statement named and shamed TRF, a proxy of the known terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The UNSC issues a press statement as an announcement and all 15 member countries have to agree on the content of the statement. Before the release of a press statement, every single member of the UNSC has to approve to the final text. Dar said he had two objection to the statement on behalf of Pakistan. He stated, “First, only Pahalgam was mentioned and secondly, the blame was put on The Resistance Forum.” He used an alternate name for TRF and added, “I thought this was not acceptable. You have to write Jammu and Kashmir along with Pahalgam.” As per Dar’s claim, TRF is only a “forum” that the local population formed, and he rejected its classification as a terror group.
Dar claimed that his demands about the UNSC statement was intensely debated upon, particularly by the United States. “I gave clear instructions to our ambassador at the UN to ensure the amendments are made,” he said. Dar further added that to mention TRF in the press release, there should be evidence. He alleged that media reports saying TRF claimed responsibility for the horrific attack were all lies. He revealed that UNSC took 2.5 days to finalise the statement because of Pakistan’s refusal to accept the initial draft. “I received phone calls from big capitals to come to a consensus on the draft, but I told them nothing doing,” he said.
Finally, the UNSC had to relent to Pakistan’s objections, as can be seen in the final press statement. While the Council strongly condemned the terror attack, it neither mentioned Pahalgam nor the name of any terror group with the rest of the statement being standard fare. The press statement said that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,” and stated that acts of terrorism are “criminal and unjustifiable”. It said that the perpetrators responsible for this “reprehensible act of terrorism” must be brought to justice.
