United Nations: Pakistan-based terror groups like LeT and JeM continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement, India told the UN Security Council on Thursday, calling on it not to take a "selective view" on the scourge of terrorism and to have the courage to call out the "double speak" of those who extend state hospitality to individuals who have innocents' blood on their hands.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, chairing a high-level United Nations Security Council briefing on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts' held under India's current presidency of the UNSC, said the heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justifies this growing anxiety.

“In our own immediate neighbourhood, ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K) has become more energetic and is constantly seeking to expand its footprint. Events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security,” he said.

“Whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement,” Jaishankar said.

It is therefore vital that the Security Council “does not take a selective, tactical or complacent view of the problems we face,” the External Affairs Minister said.

“We must never countenance sanctuaries for terrorists or overlook their raising of resources,” he said.

Without naming Pakistan, where proscribed UN terrorists and terror groups enjoy safe havens and state support, Jaishankar said: “when we see state hospitality being extended to those with innocents' blood on their hands, we should never lack the courage to call out their double-speak.”

He also drew parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the scourge of terrorism, telling the powerful 15-nation UN body that “let us always remember that what is true of Covid is even more true of terrorism: none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”

Pakistan-based Hafiz Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, has been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases. He is serving a jail sentence at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore for his conviction in terror financing cases.

Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) is the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

In 2019, the United Nations designated Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist".

India's most wanted terrorist Azhar has been charge-sheeted in several cases from the 2001 Parliament attack to the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.