Pakistan asks UNSC to outlaw violent nationalist groups

• Islamabad’s permanent ambassador to the UN Munir Akram addressed the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday.
  
• He called out for proscribing of hyper-nationalist groups including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
  
• Akram warned the hardline ideology threatened India’s 200-million strong Muslim population.
  

ISLAMABAD:  Highlighting concerns against global terrorism, Pakistan has laid out its action plan before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), suggesting to outlaw “violent extremist supremacist groups” like other terrorist outfits.

Addressing the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday, Islamabad’s permanent ambassador to the UN Munir Akram called out for proscribing of hyper-nationalist groups including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

RSS, the parent body of India’s hardline ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), poses “a clear danger to regional and international peace and security”, he said.

“Such violent racist and extremist terrorism will inevitably breed counter-violence and validate the dystopian narrative of terrorist organisations such as ISIS/Daesh and Al-Qaeda," Akram asserted.

Read more: UNSC session will increase pressure on India to tone down aggressive rhetoric: Akram

A threat to Muslim population

Referring to the ideology of militant Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, followed by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, Akram warned the hardline ideology threatened India’s 200-million strong Muslim population.

He called for immediate steps to curb the rise of violent nationalism, proposing the following measures: calling on states to designate acts of violent nationalist groups, including white supremacists and other racially and ethnically motivated groups, as terrorism, just as the world has done in case of Al-Qaeda/ISIS and their affiliated groups.

In addition to requesting the secretary-general, António Guterres, to present a plan of action to confront and defeat nationalist groups’ extremist ideologies and actions, he also suggested initiating immediate domestic actions to prevent the propagation of their violent ideologies, recruitment to and financing of these groups.

The proposal also called for the expansion of the mandate of the 1267 Sanctions Committee to include nationalist terrorist groups like the RSS. 

Attention to Kashmir cause

Pakistani official also called upon the body to “address certain neglected manifestations of terrorism, one of which is the phenomenon of ‘state terrorism’”, citing the situation in occupied Kashmir where Indian forces “are perpetrating war crimes, crimes against humanity, and against the occupied peoples in order to terrorise them into submission”.

"The world needs to expand and adjust its counter-terror strategy to “defeat terrorism in all forms and manifestations," Munir Akram said, raising his concerns to the rising new threats to global peace and security.

Read more: Pakistan presents dossier to UN chief on India's state-sponsored terrorism