UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8: Pakistan told the UN Security Council that its ability to support the international struggle against terrorism and “our aspirations for peace and prosperity” could be significantly eroded by the military threat against Pakistan from India.

Speaking at a debate in the Security Council on the ‘Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts’, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, said: “Misusing the rationale of the anti-terrorist campaign, this neighbour has deployed one million troops on Pakistan’s border and along the Line of Control in Kashmir.”

“It has repeatedly threatened to use force against Pakistan. It refuses mutual de-escalation of forces; it refuses bilateral dialogue; it refuses third party mediation; it refuses the Secretary-General’s good offices; and it refuses to end its military repression of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and justifies this by denigrating the Kashmiri freedom fighters as ‘cross-border terrorists’”, Mr Akram said.

He stressed that “the Kashmiris are struggling to exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them by this Security Council in a number of its resolutions. These Security Council resolutions must also be faithfully implemented.”

Akram warned that “If the war against terrorism is to be brought to a successful conclusion, it is vital to ensure that it is in no way misappropriated by interested parties who want to suppress the fundamental right of peoples under colonial and alien occupation or domination to struggle for their right to self-determination and freedom.”

He also pointed out that “there is another less-recognized threat to the successful conclusion of the anti-terrorist campaign — the danger of unwillingly provoking a clash of religions and cultures.”

“Obviously, some quarters have a vested interest in using the war against terrorism as a vehicle to spread hatred against Islam and the Muslims” he added.

Mr Akram said the attempt to equate Islam and the Muslims with the terrorism was an exacerbating discrimination against the Muslim minorities and peoples in various parts of the world. Unless this trend was reversed, it could result in another age-old manifestation of terrorism — organized pogroms against minorities and suppressed peoples, such as the one the world witnessed against the Muslims of Gujarat earlier this year, he added.