India Slams OIC Remarks at UN, Says Group Fails to Distinguish Victim from Perpetrator

: India has strongly rejected remarks made by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the United Nations on Jammu and Kashmir and India’s actions against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, saying the grouping appears unable to distinguish between the victim and the perpetrator.
 

Lok Sabha MP from West Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb delivered India’s national statement at the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee on Tuesday during a discussion on measures to eliminate international terrorism. Deb is part of a 15-member parliamentary delegation visiting the UN for a familiarisation week.
 

Responding to the OIC’s statement, Deb said India had taken focused and measured action against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, from where terrorist attacks against India were planned and directed.
 

He said it was regrettable that those delivering the OIC statement were unable to separate fact from fiction and distinguish between the victim and the perpetrator.
 

Deb asserted that India has the right to defend its people against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and warned that indulging in terrorism would have consequences.
 

India also rejected what Deb described as the OIC’s unwarranted reference to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the OIC should instead focus on Pakistan’s illegal occupation, particularly in Rawalakot, where he alleged that killings, violence and denial of basic rights were taking place.
 

The PoK region has witnessed protests for several months over 12 contentious refugee seats. The protests have been followed by a crackdown by security forces and allegations of rigging in elections recently held for the so-called Legislative Assembly.
 

Saudi Arabia delivered the OIC statement on behalf of the organisation at the UNGA Sixth Committee, which deals with legal issues. The OIC referred to what it called a “military escalation in Southeast Asia” and “unjustified strikes” at multiple locations in Pakistan, without mentioning India.
 

India’s response comes in the context of Operation Sindoor, which New Delhi launched in May last year against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The operation followed the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed.
 

India has said the attack was carried out by The Resistance Front, described as a proxy of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
 

The OIC statement also referred to United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.
 

Speaking about India’s experience with terrorism, Deb said the country understood from “bitter experience” that the threat was not theoretical but a persistent and daily reality. He said Indians had suffered from cross-border terrorism for decades and that the Pahalgam attack again demonstrated the devastating human cost of terrorism.
 

Deb described the Pahalgam attack as a calculated assault on India’s sovereignty and said it was planned and executed by networks that, according to India, continue to receive state patronage, safe havens and material and logistical support from across the country’s western border.
 

He stressed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism, remains one of the most serious threats to humanity. According to him, terrorism affects international peace and security, economic development, democratic institutions and human rights.
 

“Terrorism is antithetical to the values of the UN,” Deb said, stressing that there could be no justification for deliberately targeting civilians and that there was no distinction between good and bad terrorism.
 

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s position on terrorism, Deb said India considers even one terrorist attack too many and every life lost too many. He emphasised that New Delhi views terrorist attacks as attacks against humanity.
 

India also highlighted the growing use of emerging technologies by terrorist organisations. Deb said such groups were increasingly exploiting technology for recruitment, radicalisation, propaganda, operational planning and terrorist financing. Their anonymity, global reach and speed, he said, allow them to evade law enforcement and increasingly target vulnerable young people.
 

Deb also pointed to what India considers a major gap in global counter-terrorism efforts — the absence of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). India has been advocating the convention since circulating a draft in 1996.
 

He reiterated India’s call for an early conclusion of the CCIT, saying it would strengthen the international legal framework for comprehensively addressing terrorism.
 

Deb also told the UN committee that the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the BRICS Leaders’ Summit last month strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack and rejected all acts of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable.