The United Nations Security Council under India’s presidency held an urgent briefing on Friday, August 6, 2021, to discuss the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. Slamming Pakistan, without naming them, India’s Permanent Ambassador to UN T.S. Tirumurti said, those providing material and financial support to the terrorist entitled must be held accountable.
The Afghanistan government has so far been pointing fingers at Pakistan for providing military support to the Taliban. During the briefing, the Afghan envoy to United Nations Ghulam M. Isaczai slammed Pakistan for supplying logistics support to the radical outfit.
“Importantly, the Taliban continue to enjoy a safe haven in and supply and logistics line extended to their war machine from Pakistan,” the Afghan Envoy to the UN said.
The Afghan official also thrashed Pakistan for treating Talibani insurgents in Pakistani hospitals, the claim which has been rejected by Pakistan.
Backing the claim Isaczai told the council, “Graphic reports and videos of Taliban fighters congregating close to the Durand Line to enter Afghanistan, fund-raising events, transfer of dead bodies for mass burial, and treatment of injured Taliban in Pakistani hospitals are emerging and are widely available.”
The decision to hold a special session of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan came a day after Afghanistan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar called External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar. The Afghan Foreign Minister discussed the worsening security situation in Afghanistan and the unprecedented increase in the Taliban’s brutal attack on Afghan people.
Addressing the briefing, the Indian Ambassador to UN, T.S.Tirumurti reiterated that for ensuring peace in Afghanistan immediate actions should be taken for uprooting terrorist safe-hideouts.
“For enduring peace in Afghanistan, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries in the region must be dismantled immediately and terrorist supply chains disrupted. It needs to be ensured that Afghanistan’s neighbours and the region are not threatened by terrorism, separatism and extremism. There needs to be zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Ambassador Tirumurti said.
“Taliban engage in negotiations in good faith, eschew the path of violence, severe ties with the Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, and fully commit itself towards reaching a political solution,” he added.
The Indian Envoy to the United Nations T.S. Tirumurti while addressing the briefing also called on the international community to decide on actions that would help bring a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan.
“We, as the international community, cannot afford to set the clock back. The future of Afghanistan cannot be its past,” he said.
The Indian Ambassador denouncing the Taliban’s action of garnering international support said that ‘any regime devoid of legitimacy in Afghanistan would find it difficult to garner much needed humanitarian and developmental assistance from the international donor community.
The security situation in Afghanistan started deteriorating following the US withdrawal of troops. According to the local media reports, heavy fighting continued between Taliban and Afghani forces in the capital city of northern Jawzjan province for the last two days with some key areas of the province falling under the Taliban’s control. In the past few weeks, the war in Afghanistan has taken a destructive phase, with the Islamic fundamentalist group targeting innocent Afghan civilians and government officials. Further, the Taliban on August 6 shot dead the head of the Afghan government’s media information center Dawa Khan Menapal. Recently the Taliban also claimed the responsibility for targeting the home of Afghanistan’s defense minister. According to local media report a 21-year-old woman in Afghanistan was shot dead by the Taliban for not wearing a veil.
WhatsApp us