Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, said something important during a speech in the country’s upper house (Senate) on Tuesday. He shared that Pakistan objected to part of a United Nations statement that was made after the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
This attack, which happened in April, killed 26 people, most of them tourists.
Dar said Pakistan had a problem with the way the UN condemned the terror group called The Resistance Front (TRF) in its press release.
"We objected to the condemnation of The Resistance Front (TRF)," Dar told the Senate.
Reports now say that Pakistan successfully got TRF’s name removed from the final UN statement. This is important because TRF had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack, but then later took back that claim.
While Pakistan has not openly supported the group, Dar’s comments are being seen as a sign of Pakistan defending a group linked to the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
According to some media outlets, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Asim Munir personally asked LeT leaders to make TRF deny involvement in the attack. These reports have not been officially confirmed but were widely circulated in the media.
The UN Security Council released a statement on April 25, condemning the attack and expressing sadness for the victims. But it did not name TRF in the final version.
The statement read:
"The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of India and Government of Nepal and wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured."
It also added:
"The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. They stressed that those responsible for these killings should be held accountable, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard."
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