Veronica Ekelund, Research Analyst, EFSAS argued that Pakistan has been sheltering terrorists quoting directly from the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mr Khan had earlier said that his country hosts 40,000 terrorists and had referred Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” in the country’s Parliament.
European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), an independent think tank located in Netherlands, has slammed Pakistan for allegedly being the harbour of global terrorism. The remarks from the institute was brought at the 18th Meeting of the 45th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, citing several instances in which Pakistan itself admitted giving protection to the terrorists within its territory.
Pointing towards the same, Veronica Ekelund, Research Analyst, EFSAS argued that Pakistan has been sheltering terrorist organisations quoting directly from the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mr Khan had earlier said that his country hosts 40,000 terrorists and had referred Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” in the country’s Parliament. Moreover, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the presence of UN Designated Terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim on its territory last month, Ekelund added.
Dawood Ibrahim, Notorious terrorist wanted by India and US with a reward of 25 million dollars was the brain behind 1993 Bombay blasts. He grabbed headlines as he became part of the ‘esteemed’ list of 88 terrorists proscribed by Pakistan. He was named number three on “The World’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives” by the FBI and Forbes .
Dawood began his career by taking part in smuggling and ferocious crimes in his initial time and later joined the group of Baashu Dada. He later split from the group and made his own gang with his senior sibling Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar in the latter half of the 1970s. After Shabir’s assassination by the opponent Pathan group, he turned out to be the sole leader of his gang, known as the D-Company.
He was then associated with smuggling, extortion and drug trafficking. He fled India for Dubai in 1986 subsequent to being needed by the Mumbai Police for the murdering Samad Khan. In the next years he extended his gang with Chhota Rajan, having more than 5000 members and getting shedloads of money in income every year in the mid 1990s.
He was named by the Indian government as one of the masterminds in the 1993 Mumbai Bombings. Following the attacks he fled Dubai for Pakistan, where he is said to be living to this day. But Pakistan so far had been denying presence of Dawood in its territory.
“There is no need to elaborate that Pakistani officials have time and again confessed the country continues to be a safe haven for terrorists and terrorist organisations. The UN Security Council’s consolidated list of terrorist individuals and entities included a hundred and forty-six entries from Pakistan. With all due respect, I am compelled to ask, why is Pakistan still a member of this council?” Ekelund concluded with a question to the international community who stands for peace and human rights.
‘Sinking country’
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has that said those responsible for sending him to jail have “sunk the country” and these “antics” would not be allowed to carry on.
Taking to Twitter, the PML-N supremo questioned the credibility of the accountability process through which he was convicted and jailed, reports The Express Tribune.
Along with his tweet, he shared a video of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who was removed from his post following a controversial speech against state institutions.
The video also showed former accountability judge Arshad Malik confessing to convicting Sharif under duress.
The judge was later sacked by an administrative committee of the Lahore High Court.
“This is the reality of the accountability through which a three-time elected prime minister was victimised, sentenced and declared an absconder,” The Express Tribune quoted the former leader, who has been in London since last year undergoing treatment for an undiagnosed illness, as further saying in the tweet.
Sharif also spoke with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the phone and discussed options to oust the incumbent Imran Khan-led government.
Informed sources told The Express Tribune that the two opposition leaders exchanged views on appointing the head of newly-formed Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance of opposition parties.
They also approved the formation of committee to decide the matter of opposition lawmakers resigning from the assemblies.
In 2018, an accountability court had sentenced the three-time premier to seven-year rigorous imprisonment after it found him guilty in the Al-Azizia reference, one of the three graft cases filed by NAB in line with the apex court order.
Prior to his sentence, the Supreme Court had disqualified him in Panama Papers case and ordered NAB to file corruption references against him.