Pak minister's admission exposes role as 'rogue state fuelling global terrorism': India at UN (Ld)

Referring to Asif's recent interview with Sky News, she said on Monday that "the whole world has heard' him 'admitting and confessing Pakistan's history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations".

"This open confession surprises no one and exposes Pakistan as a rogue state fuelling global terrorism and destabilising the region," she said. "The world can no longer turn a blind eye".

Patel was responding to a Pakistani diplomat's veiled attack on India at the launch of the Victims of Terrorism Associations Network (VoTAN).

"It is unfortunate that one particular delegation has chosen to misuse and undermine this forum to indulge in propaganda and make baseless allegations against India," she said.

A Sky News interviewer last week asked Asif if Pakistan had a long history of "backing and supporting and training and funding" terrorist organisations.

He candidly admitted that it had.

But tried to pass on a part of the blame to the West, recalling their joint operations in support of Islamic groups fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan more than 36 years ago.

"We have been doing this dirty work for the US for the past three decades, including the West and the United Kingdom," he claimed, although the West did not sponsor or support attacks on India.

Earlier, Jawad Ajmal, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission, asserted that Pakistan "has credible evidence" that the terrorist attack by the Baloch Liberation Army on a passenger train "had external sponsorship from our adversaries in the region".

Although he did not explicitly name India, he was echoing the head of Pakistan's military public relations, Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhury, who claimed that India financed the Baloch Liberation Army, which has been accused of attacking the train last month.

Even as he expressed concern over last week's terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam and offered condolences to the families of victims, Ajmal could not resist adding a barb asserting that the incident occurred in "Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir".

A front organisation of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which calls itself the Resistance Front, has owned responsibility for the Pahalgam massacre that claimed the lives of 26 people. Ajmal said that Pakistan, currently an elected member of the Security Council, joined the others on the Council to condemn this attack.

The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism launched the VoTAN to bring together victims of terrorism, their associations and civil society groups and form a global network to support the victims.

Ambassador Patel said that "the strong, unequivocal support and solidarity extended by leaders and governments across the world" after the Pahalgam attack "is a testimony to the international community's zero tolerance for terrorism".

It caused the largest number of civilian casualties since the horrific 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, she said.

"Having been a victim of cross-border terrorism for decades, India fully understands the long-lasting impact such acts have on victims, their families and society", she said.