Pakistan Accuses India of State-sponsored Terrorism

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel guard the India-Pakistan border in Jammu. (

Jehanzeb Khan, First Secretary at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, criticized India at the Sixth Committee General Debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) for allegedly sponsoring terrorist groups acting outside their borders. On Wednesday, Khan admonished Pakistan’s neighbor for supporting Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA).

“[India implements terrorism] as an instrument of its coercive policies against every one of its neighbors, especially Pakistan, and against its own Muslim population particularly in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Khan said.

Khan’s criticisms are rooted in decades of conflict between India and Pakistan in the fiercely contested region of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Independence Act of 1947, which gave both India and Pakistan independence from Britain as two separate states, stipulated that Kashmir would be given the choice to join either country. Kashmir’s ruler, Hari Singh, joined India in exchange for protection from an invasion of Pakistani tribesmen, leading to a war until the region was partitioned in 1949.

After two more wars in 1965 and 1999, Kashmir has remained highly divisive, with both India and Pakistan claiming the entirety of the region as their own. In Indian-administered Kashmir, the region’s special autonomy was revoked last month, a move which added fuel to an already decades-long violent rebellion against the Indian government. According to Khan, India has used claims of Kashmiri terrorism as a pretext for their enforcement in the region.

"India's state sponsored terrorism has done little to weaken the indigenous and legitimate struggle of Kashmiris for their inalienable right to self-determination. The Indian hoax of targeting so-called terrorists was exposed only recently when the victim's of Indian state terrorism turned out to be innocent labourers," Khan said.

Additionally, Khan mentioned terrorist attacks against Pakistan conceived in foreign countries, such as the attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange and the attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi. In both attacks, Khan alleged ties to the Indian government.

On the other hand, India has indirectly implicated Pakistan in terrorist attacks on its own citizens.

“India has been and continues to be a victim of terrorism sponsored across our borders. We have had firsthand experience of the cruel link between transnational organised crime and terrorism," said Yedla Umasanka, First Secretary and Legal Adviser in India's Permanent Mission to the UN.

These accusations of state-sponsored terrorism have only compounded growing tensions in Jammu and Kashmir. Furthermore, the Indian government’s actions, according to Khan, are emblematic of a larger policy of Hindu supremacy. Because Kashmir is the only Muslim-majoirty territory administered by India, Khan expressed concerns about a brutal crackdown by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi based on his history of violence against Indian Muslims.

"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi [...] was responsible for the pogrom in Gujrat in 2002 which killed 2,000 innocent Muslim children, women and men,” Khan said.

The multilayered social, political and religious crises unfolding in Jammu and Kashmir have dramatically decreased any hope of diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan. In the last few years, the region has become an even greater flashpoint for the growing hostility between the Indian subcontinent’s nuclear powers. Pakistan’s accusations of state-sponsored terrorism by India focalize the issues of Kashmiri autonomy and Hindu nationalism. Relations between Islamabad and New Delhi will likely worsen as these allegations continue to unfold.