Days after a UN report stated that Pakistan-based terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are engaged in trafficking fighters into Afghanistan, India on Friday said the world body has only reiterated what the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has already confessed.

In response to media queries on a press release dated 4 June 2020 by Pakistan Foreign Office, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that “instead of casting aspersions on the report, Pakistan should introspect and put an end to any kind of support for terrorism emanating from territories under its control.”

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“The UN and international community is well acquainted with the reality that Pakistan is the nerve center of terrorism,” he added.

Srivastava further reminded Islamabad of its PM’s admission saying, “Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would do well to recall that their PM admitted last year that the country hosts 30,000-40,000 terrorists.

Pakistan’s leadership is on record acknowledging that in past, terrorists used the country’s soil to carry out terror attacks on other countries, the MEA spokesperson added.

In July last year, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in a startling admission had said that about “30,000 to 40,000” terrorists who had trained and fought in “some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir” were in his country.

At an event in the US, Imran Khan said before his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came into power, previous governments did not have the political will to act against terror groups operating in the country.

“There was a watershed in Pakistani politics. In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban slaughtered 150 schoolchildren at Army Public School. All the political parties signed the National Action Plan and we all decided after that, that we will not allow any militant groups to operate inside Pakistan,” he said at the US Institute of Peace.

India had on Tuesday said a UN report on terrorism has vindicated its long-standing position that Pakistan remained the epicentre of international terrorism, saying terrorist entities and individuals continue to enjoy safe havens in that country.

According to the report, terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are engaged in trafficking fighters into Afghanistan who are threatening to derail the peace process in the war-torn country.

“This vindicates India’s long standing position that Pakistan remains the epicentre of international terrorism,” MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said.

In response to media queries on the report, he said proscribed terrorist entities and individuals continue to enjoy safe havens and and operate with impunity from Pakistan with state support.

“They inflict violence and spread terrorism in the region and other parts of the world. Pakistan has failed in fulfilling its international obligations, including under relevant UNSC resolutions and the Financial Action Task Force, to put an end to support to terrorism,” he said.

Srivastava said the international community should hold Pakistan accountable and seek sustained, verifiable and irreversible action by Pakistan against terrorism.

The 25th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al Qaeda and associated individuals and entities, was submitted to the UN Security Council.

“We note with serious concern reference in the report to the continued presence of the senior leadership of the UN designated terrorist organisation Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Afghanistan as well as a large number of foreign terrorist fighters, including up to 6500 Pakistan nationals, operating in Afghanistan,” Srivastava said.