Indian delegation discusses cooperation with top UN counter-terrorism officials

United Nations, May 15 (IANS) A delegation from India met with the top UN counter-terrorism officials on Wednesday for a wide-ranging discussion on cooperation in fighting terrorism in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack by The Resistance Front.

During their discussions with the Indian delegation, Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) focused on cooperation, "particularly in support of implementing key Security Council counter-terrorism resolutions and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy," a readout of the meeting from UNOCT said.

Voronkov and Gherman expressed their condolences for the victims of the terrorist attack last month in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

The delegation from India, which includes intelligence officials, was at the UN headquarters to present India's case for declaring The Resistance Front (TRF), the perpetrator of the Pahalgam massacre, an international terrorist organisation and sanctioning it, according to sources at the UN.

The TRF, an affiliate of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which has been listed as an international terrorist organisation by the UN.

The delegation was also meeting on Wednesday with the monitoring team of the Security Council panel known as the 1267 Committee that sanctions terrorist groups and those associated with them, the sources said.

The team, the sources said, is presenting the committee with evidence of TRF carrying out Pahalgam attack and its other activities.

The committee is named after Security Council Resolution 1267 that calls for action against the Islamic State or Da'esh, and Al-Qaida, and groups and people associated with them.

The delegation was also meeting with diplomats from UN members to press for declaring TRF a terrorist organisation.

The readout from UNOCT of the meetings with the Indian delegation said that for India and the UN counter-terrorism agencies the "key areas of cooperation include UNOCT-led technical capacity-building initiatives supported by India -- such as cybersecurity, countering terrorist travel, supporting victims of terrorism, and countering the financing of terrorism".

The delegation and the UN officials also "discussed efforts to counter the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes," the readout said.

These goals were set out in the 2022 Delhi Declaration adopted by the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee chaired by India when it met in the Indian capital and paid special attention to emerging terrorist threats through use of emerging technologies.

The declaration also called for the development of guiding principles to be prepared with CTED's support on threats posed by unmanned aircraft systems and the use of emerging financial technologies for terrorist activities.

LeT was listed as an international terrorist organisation in 2005 and sanctioned.

The sanctions list includes 27 names under which LeT operates, including Pasba-e-Kashmir, and variations of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

About a dozen individuals associated with it, including its leader Hafeez Mohammed Saeed, have also been sanctioned along with three organisations linked to it, including Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

The sanctions include freezing of their assets and travel ban.

--IANS

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