Pakistan has been targeting Indian professionals working in Afghanistan in various ways, and several Indians working on development projects have been attacked and kidnapped in the past 12 years, the government informed Parliament on Monday.
Since September last year, Pakistan has also tried to designate four Indian nationals, who had previously worked in Afghanistan, as terrorists under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs V Muraleedharan , in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
“However, the 1267 Sanctions Committee, based on its internal procedures, has not approved the request,” said the minister.
In his response to the same question, Muraleedharan said: “Pakistan has been targeting the Indian professionals working in Afghanistan in various ways. Several Indians working in Afghanistan on various development projects have been attacked and kidnapped over the past 12 years.
“With the help of [the] government of Afghanistan, India has been able to ensure [the] liberation of many Indians from captivity. Further, [the] The Indian embassy and its consulates have also been attacked.
The last of the seven Indian engineers who were kidnapped in Afghanistan in May 2018 was recently released before the Afghan government and the Taliban launched intra-Afghan negotiations in Qatar this month.
Muraleedharan said that as a result of the Indian government’s efforts, there is “increased concern in the international community about terrorism emanating from Pakistan, including the continued activities of internationally designated terrorist entities and individuals as Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), Lashkar-e -Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad [and] Hizbul Mujahideen ”.
The world community strongly condemned the cross-border terrorist attack in Pulwama in February 2019 and several countries have called on Pakistan “not to allow its territory to be used for terrorism in any way,” he said.
“Many terrorist entities and individuals who find refuge in Pakistan and also participate in terrorism against India have been banned by the United Nations (UN), the European Union and other countries,” he said, adding that JeM founder Masood Azhar, was sanctioned by the UN Sanctions Committee 1267 in May last year. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in its June 2018 plenary, notified Pakistan on the “gray list” due to “continuing concerns related to terrorist financing, including with regard to banned terrorist entities from the UN as LeT, JuD and Falah- Fundación e-Insaniyat ”, he also said.
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