Muhammad Atta Ullah

Indian policies to counter terrorism have mustered no support at international level rather these have been counter-productive. Indian leadership, however, has been successfully selling the ill-conceived counter terrorism narrative to its public to get political mileage which apparently has yielded positive results for Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in recently concluded Bihar state elections, although Opposition parties including Congress(I) have been on record pointing fingers at Central government for mass scale rigging in the state elections to the benefit of BJP.

BJP may apparently be comfortable with its “dubious “   anti-terrorism narrative and out-come of Bihar State elections wherein Indian government conveniently had implicated Pakistan in April 22 assault in Pahalgam    that killed 26 civilians and had triggered a sharp escalation. Major blow to Indian anti-terrorism narrative   at international level came on December 15, 2025, when the UN Special Rapporteurs and independent experts concluded that India’s use of military force inside Pakistan after Pahalgam attack violated international law and undermined the right to life and security. The report dated October 16, and, was released publicly on December 15, 2025 states that Indian action to use force inside Pakistan in May 2025, lacked any lawful self-defense basis and increased the risk of wider regional confrontation.   The report goes on to say that accountability was needed for the Indian unjustified attack on Pakistani territories, but India has failed to provide evidence linking the Pahalgam incident to Pakistani state involvement, even though that allegation was used to justify military retaliation. The UN Special Rapporteurs have also noted with grave concern that Indian government did not formally notify the UNSC of any claimed self defense  action under Aerticle-51 of the UN Charter , which is a procedural obligation.

Heightened Alarm at International Level:

Publication of this report has once again drawn attention at international level. Meanwhile, the whole world is engaged in countering terrorism, which has no boundaries. Recent unfortunate incident of terrorism at Sidney (Australia) wherein individual having Indian identity was clearly involved is a proof that the terrorists have no country or religion. If this incident is seen in the light of “Indian counter terrorism narrative” , then Australia might be seen responding against India ,  like India had unjustifiably   responded in May 2025 against Pakistan. But of course, no sane person or government can think or act like short sighted leadership of India that unfortunately is headed by a person who is only interested in clinching to power by manipulating elections as is evident from statements of Rahul Gandhi, the leader of Congress(I). The UN report has cautioned that India’s conduct amounted to a serious violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and Pakistan would retain a right to self-defense.

IWT & Indian Actions:

The UN report has also raised concern over India’s announcement to place the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance. Report goes on to say that obstruction or uncertainty in river flows can affect the rights of millions of Pakistanis including access to water, food, livelihood, health and environmental security. The UN experts have called India’s phrasing of the treaty being “held in abeyance “ambiguous and mentioned that New Delhi had not clearly invoked provisions for suspension under treaty law. The report describes any unilateral suspension as unlawful because it bypasses established procedures which are already provided in the settlement mechanism in the same treaty. The report clearly rebuts Indian stance which refers to “material breach” and “cross border terrorism” as legally weak grounds for suspension, saying that Pakistan has not been shown to have violated any clause of treaty. It may be mentioned here that the responsibility for deterioration in treaty engagements wholly rests upon Indian government’s attitude because annual meetings of the Indus Commission have not taken place since 2022 due to Indian moves to create hurdles in data exchange and disagreements over settlement clauses as contrary to the treaty’s intent.      

  India Penalizing Kashmiri Muslim Families:

Indian government has meanwhile intensified   torturing of Kashmiri Muslim families in IIOJK  after it was given a befitting reply by Pakistan in May 2025. After failing to brand Pakistan as a terrorist sponsoring country ,  the Indian security forces are now engaged in violations of human rights of Muslim women and children in IIOJK in the name of “national security”. Very recently, the Indian security forces have been busy in arresting and deporting Pakistani nationals who were on family visa to India. According to a report published by Al-Jazeera, India has since April 2025 , deported 800 Pakistani nationals from IIOJK to Pakistan , separating mothers from children, husbands from wives with no signs of re-union due to Indian government’s inhuman policies . The International Human Rights bodies have raised alarm over this state of affairs and have highlighted that these “broken families” have no link or role with Pahalgam incident . The Kashmiri legislatures have time and again described the ordeal of small children whose mothers have been illegally deported by Indian authorities and some families’ fathers have been deported without any legal justification. Despite the hue and cry of law makers in IIOJK , New Delhi is unmoved .  Indian leadership is moving in a vicious circle of involving Pakistan in every mishap in India to hide its own incompetency. Its leadership is intellectually bankrupt and is unable to discover the reality that Pakistan is not behind ills being faced by India , rather these are policies of biased Indian leadership whether internal or external, which are making the people hostage in IIOJK and in rest of Indian states where Modi government wants to prolong its fascist rule at any cost.

Recommendations:       

1. Pakistan needs to call an international conference of those countries who are directly affected by menace of terrorism in the backdrop of abovementioned UN Rapporteurs report in order to highlight that “terrorism “needs inclusive response by international community.
2. The matter of suspension or held in abeyance of IWT by India is needed to be vigorously followed by Pakistan at UN level as silence on this issue will further embolden India.
3. There is an urgent need that International Human Rights organizations and UNSC be approached by Pakistan as well as the INGOs to raise voice for innocent women and children whose parents have been forcibly separated by Indian government after April 2025. It is moral and legal duty of UN organizations on Human Rights and other similar organizations in the civilized world to take visible steps to re-unite the 800 innocent Kashmiri families who are victim of Indian cruel policies.

The author is former Joint Director General Intelligence Bureau and geo-political analyst