State-backed terrorism must be called out publicly: Jaishankar

Making a reference to Pakistan without naming it, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said it was imperative to call out terrorism publicly when it was supported by a state against a neighbour and was fuelled by the bigotry of extremism.

The minister was inaugurating an exhibition titled ‘The Human Cost of Terrorism’ at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.

The minister, who is on a three-day visit to the US, said, “When terrorism is supported by a state against the neighbour, when it is fuelled by the bigotry of extremism and drives a whole host of illegal activities, it is imperative to call it out publicly and one way of doing so is to display the havoc that it has wreaked on global society.”

The exhibition, which will be on display at two locations in the UN Headquarters from June 30 to July 3 and July 7 to 11, opened a day before Pakistan begins its Presidency of the UN Security Council for July on Tuesday.

The exhibition is organised by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN and is an effort to draw global support for India's campaign against cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.

The digital exhibition displays the terror attacks perpetrated across the world, including the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and the Pahalgam terror attack, and names the terror outfits responsible for carrying out the attacks, including several Pakistan-based individuals and entities such as Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group.