The fragmentation in the global fight against terror Premium

The Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 has exposed, yet again, the fragmentation in the global fight against terror and Pakistan’s resort to terrorism when it fears normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir

The Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 has exposed, yet again, the fragmentation in the global fight against terror and Pakistan’s resort to terrorism when it fears normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. While a number of countries have condemned the Pahalgam attack, they have, at the same time, called upon India and Pakistan to exercise restraint. The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, went to the extent of calling on both parties to “work towards … a responsible resolution that maintains long term peace and regional stability in South Asia”. U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance “hoped” that India’s response would not lead to a wider regional conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that “settling disagreements” between New Delhi and Islamabad on a bilateral basis should be by political and diplomatic means. The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas could not even get around to calling it a “terror attack”.

Gone are the days of “zero tolerance” to terror. Gone are the days when the perpetrators of terror were called out and accountability demanded. Some have even asked India for “proof” of Pakistan’s complicity, conveniently forgetting inter alia the Pulwama (2019) and 26/11 Mumbai (2008) terror attacks. In effect, they are calling on India, the victim, to be restrained and to not go after Pakistan, the perpetrator and backer.

India should not be surprised. To begin with, the appetite for a flare-up in Asia is low after the raging wars in Ukraine, Gaza and West Asia. Moreover, successful elections in Jammu and Kashmir and tourists flocking to Kashmir are red flags for Pakistan. To top it all, the global fight against terror is no more a collective fight. It is now left for each state to fend for itself. The consensus reached after the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S. in 2001, to fight terror comprehensively, seems to have run its course. The world has gone back to the era of “my terrorist” and “your terrorist.”

Europe is focused on “its” terrorists — right-wing extremism and terror. The U.S., under former President Joe Biden, focused on REMVE, or racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is keen only to use Islamophobia as an excuse to condone terror. Canada has told India that “your” terrorists are not “my” terrorists and that any terrorist threat against India from its soil is covered under its freedom of expression — in effect asking India to wait till a terror act is committed before approaching them. China has blocked proposals submitted by India in 2022 to “black-list”, under the UN Security Council 1267 sanctions regime, terrorists operating against India from Pakistani soil. Now that Pakistan is in the UN Security Council (UNSC) for 2025-26 (as a non-permanent member), these will remain blocked for at least two more years.

The world is blindsided by the spread of terror in Asia and Africa. Terrorism in Africa has spread exponentially, from the Sahel to Mozambique. The Global Terrorism Index 2025 points out that the Sahel is now the epicentre of terrorism, accounting for over half of all terrorism deaths in the world. But the international community says they are “your” terrorists not “my” terrorists and is short-changing Africa.

However, a different yardstick applies when it comes to India, which is the biggest victim of state-sponsored terror from Pakistan. First, it is about “regional stability” and not about fighting terror as Pakistan has successfully sold the “nuclear war” bogey to the world. Even as they egg Ukraine on in its war with “nuclear” Russia, the thought of two developing countries using nuclear arms scares the West enough to call on India to stop fighting cross-border terror. It is quickly forgotten that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who called on Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use nuclear arms in the Ukraine war for which he was thanked by the U.S. among other countries.

Further, it is now common knowledge that in Pahalgam, the terrorists singled out the tourists based on religion and shot them. A Muslim pony ride operator was shot while trying to save the tourists. The terror attack, which The Resistance Front (a proxy of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba) claimed that it had carried out — it retracted this statement later — was clearly done to raise tensions and create a communal divide in India.