India calls for early adoption of international pact against terrorism, cites Pahalgam attack

United Nations: While calling for the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), India has stressed the importance of legal measures to act against all those behind the Pahalgam terrorist massacre.

BJP MP Biplab Kumar Deb said on Tuesday that it was essential to hold to account the perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of cross-border terrorism like last year's Pahalgam attack that killed 26 innocent civilians.

The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, took responsibility for the attack.

Speaking at the General Assembly's Sixth Committee that deals with international legal matters, Deb strongly reiterated India's right to defend its people against cross-border terrorism.

India has said that Pakistan is a state sponsor of cross-border terrorism, and after the Pahalgam attack, retaliated against terrorist bases operating there under its protection.

An early adoption of the CCIT that has been languishing for 30 years is required to strengthen the international legal framework against terrorism, Deb said.

The CCIT proposed by India in 1996 has been blocked by some countries that make an invidious distinction between “good terrorists” and “bad”, claiming it should not cover “freedom fighters” who they claim are under the first category.

Deb said that a distinction cannot be made between “good” and “bad” terrorism, and there can be no justification for targeting civilians.

A national general secretary of the BJP, he is a former chief minister of Tripura and is one of the MPs in India's delegation to the General Assembly.

Deb drew attention to India's concerns over terrorists adopting emerging technologies for recruitment, radicalisation, propaganda, operational planning and terrorist financing.

It is one of India’s six priorities on counter-terrorism, and the others, he outlined, are ending terrorist financing, placing victims at the centre, strengthening nationally owned capacity-building, confronting terrorist ideology, and impeding infrastructure.

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