India demands UNSC ban on JuD, Pak promises to act

UNITED NATIONS: In a prompt response to India's demand for a ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), Pakistan on Wednesday promised to proscribe the front organisation of the LeT, blamed for the deadly Mumbai attacks, as a terrorist outfit if the UN Security Council asked it to do so.
    
During a debate on terrorism in the Council, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said the Mumbai strikes were sponsored from across the border and asked Pakistan to act against terrorism emanating from its soil, failing which India will "do everything to protect its citizens."
    
Emphasising that the November 26 attacks in Mumbai marked a "qualitatively new and dangerous escalation of terrorism," Ahamed in a veiled reference to Pakistan said on Tuesday that raising dust to confuse the trail so that the "merchants of
terror can hide" is not acceptable.
    
Close on the heels of Ahamed's hard-hitting remarks, Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, held out an assurance to the Security Council that Islamabad would proscribe Jamaat-ud-Dawah and freeze its assets at the request of the UNSC.
    
Islamabad also assured the world body that all training camps of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or any entity of this nature would not be allowed on its territory.
    
Stressing that India has been target of terrorist attacks sponsored from across the border for the last two decades, Ahamed asserted that when terrorist groups are used to serve the political interest of States, a deadly combination emerges and a terror machine is created.
    
"Their (JuD) country of origin need to take urgent steps to stop their functioning," Ahamed said while intervening in the debate on terrorism.

India would act to "safeguard and protect" its people from such heinous attacks, howsoever long or difficult task that may be, Ahamed said.
    
But "we must do our duty by our people and take all actions as we deem fit to defend and protect them," he said, adding the Charter of the United Nations and provisions of international law, including the right of self-defence, give it the framework to fulfil these responsibilities.
    
"Our people ask the international community to determinedly pursue and eliminate terrorist organisations. The world needs to act decisively and in a coordinated manner to prevent further attacks," the minister said.
    
Ahamed said the nexus between State -- or elements within the State -- and terror outfits must be broken and groups or individuals that indoctrinate, organise, plan and finance terror have to be uprooted.
    
He said the Mumbai attacks were conducted like a commando operation, indicating that the terrorists had received professional training.
    
Ahamed said the Mumbai attacks were the first terrorist attack in India where foreigners were specifically segregated and targeted.
    
Mumbai's case, Ahamed said, is clear. "The back-trail is marked and definite, but in cases where terrorists' acts are aided and abetted to cover their tracks, all of us separately and together must ensure that they are discovered and the terrorists are brought to justice."
    
Nothing, no religious grievance, dispute or ideology, can be used as a raision d'etre, by anyone, to justify terrorism. "This is totally unacceptable," he said.
    
Practical measures need to be immediately taken to see that the menace of terror is uprooted and the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that India tabled in 1996 needs to be adopted immediately to provide a framework of international law, he said.