New Delhi/Geneva, March 11 A Kashmiri rights activist at United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday flayed Pakistan for committing grave human rights violations with its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.
Junaid Qureshi, the son of Kashmiri separatist and 1971 Indian Airlines hijacker Hashim Qureshi, in a general debate at the 43rd session of the UNHRC in Geneva, described Pakistan's efforts at curbing terrorism "an eyewash".
Director of Amsterdam-based thinktank, European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), Junaid while highlighting the threat terrorism and its sponsorship posed to human rights said the recent FATF pressure on Pakistan has compelled the country's military establishment to adopt a "more selective" approach towards promoting, sponsoring and exporting terrorism.
"But it is nothing new, as over decades, Pakistan has honed this skill into an art," Junaid said.
Pointing out the fact that Ehsanullah Ehsan of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Masood Azhar, the UN designated global terrorist and chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad had suddenly gone missing, Junaid said, "It illustrates that the so-called conviction of another UN designated global terrorist and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, is merely an eyewash."
"While Hafiz Saeed's fate will most certainly change for the better when international pressure eases, it appears that the other two terrorists have miraculously managed to outrun the might of the Pakistani intelligence agencies, which all of a sudden lost complete sight of them," he said.
Junaid said these actions clearly demonstrated that Pakistan prefers subterfuge over sincerity, emboldened by the fact that international pressure is mainly limited to words.
That is precisely the reason why it is imperative for the UN to invoke several punitive leverages that are available to it, keep increasing its collaboration with the FATF and continue to sustain a hawk's eye focus on Pakistan, Junaid argued.
"In order to stop this menace of terrorism in South Asia and beyond, what must now be ensured is that the foot, does not come off the pedal," the rights activist said.
( With inputs from IANS )