Pakistan must end terror, attempts to create discord with Afghanistan won't succeed: India

NEW DELHI: India on Friday said Pakistan would do well to recall that its PM, Imran Khan, had himself admitted last year that Pakistan still harboured 30,000 to 40,000 terrorists.
Describing Pakistan as the nerve centre of terrorism, official sources here also said Pakistan’s attempts to create a divide in the traditional and friendly relations between the people of India and Afghanistan will not succeed.
This follows concerns expressed by India over a report submitted by the UNSC's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning individuals and entities constituting a threat to the peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The report had referred to a "continued presence" of the senior leadership of UN designated terrorist organisation Al Qaida and its affiliates in Afghanistan. It had also mentioned a large number of foreign terrorist fighters, including up to 6,500 Pakistan nationals, operating in Afghanistan.
While India had said it stood vindicated by the report on Pakistan's cross-border terrorism, Islamabad had cited the same report yesterday to claim, as Pakistan media reported, that the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating from Afghanistan and supported by India threatened regional countries, including Pakistan. It also blamed India for complicating the Afghanistan peace process.
Official sources here said though that Pakistan’s leadership was also on record acknowledging that in the past, terrorists had used the country's soil to carry out terror attacks on other countries.
"The UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team Report has only reiterated what the Prime Minister of Pakistan has already confessed. Instead of casting aspersions on the Report, Pakistan should introspect and put an end to any kind of support for terrorism emanating from territories under its control," said a source.
The UN and the international community is well acquainted with the reality that Pakistan is the nerve center of terrorism, added sources.
The government said Pakistan houses one of the largest numbers of UN-designated terrorists and terrorist entities and that its fallacious attempts to point fingers at others cannot deflect attention from the facts on the ground.
Moreover, sources added, Pakistan’s attempts to create a divide in the traditional and friendly relations between the people of India and Afghanistan will not succeed.
"The people of Afghanistan and the international community are well aware of who the ‘spoiler’ is, and who is sheltering, training, arming and financing terrorists and sponsoring violence against innocent Afghans and members of the international community," said a source.