India demands UN action against terror threats to Afghanistan

United Nations, March 17, 2015: India has lashed out against the "systematic state support" from outside to terrorist organisations bent on destabilising Afghanistan and has called on the UN Security Council to act immediately against the threat from these forces. Speaking at a Security Council debate Monday on aid to Afghanistan, India's Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji said, "It is terrorism and not tribal differences or ethnic rivalries, which is the main source of insecurity and instability in Afghanistan." "Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's report to the Security Council last month on Afghanistan and international security backs up this view of India," he said. "These terrorist groups, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba or LeT, are active despite the efforts of the valiant personnel of the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) and the international coalition forces," Mukerji said. "It is obvious that their activity cannot be sustained without systematic state support from beyond Afghanistan's borders." Although he tactfully avoided naming names, singling out Lashkar-e-Taiba made clear the source of the "systematic state support." The terror group is based in Lahore and operated training camps in Pakistan-administerd Kashmir, a fact acknowledged by the US State Department. "Reports indicate these groups are mutating into more virulent forms, in a region already impacted by terrorism," Mukerji added. "The Council must act against this threat with a sense of urgency."