Pakistan invites former UNSC listed terrorist Gulbadin Hekmatyar to speak on first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370 in J&K

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A former United Nations Security Council (UNSC) listed terrorist and a convict were among the people that Pakistani missions had globally lined up to mark the first anniversary of abrogation of special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistani Mission in Afghanistan held a virtual meeting in which Gulbadin Hekmatyar, also known as the butcher of Kabul, and is a former UNSC listed terrorist, was present. 

Hekmatyar's links with Pakistani establishment are well known given the backing to him by Islamabad during the Afghan civil war in the 1990s.

In New York, the permanent mission of Pakistan to the United Nations invited Ghulam Nabi Fai for a virtual event, a person who was earlier arrested by the FBI.

Fai was imprisoned for 2 years by a US court for hiding transfer of $3.5 million fund transfer from Pakistan's notorious spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for lobbying with the US government on Kashmir. 

Pakistani envoy to UN, Munir Akram, and Pakistani envoy to Kabul, Zahid Nasrullah Khan, were also present in the virtual meet.

Pakistani missions organised similar events in other countries as well. In Malaysia, Prof Muhamad Roslan, an economist and Shan Saeed, an economist were invited for the August 5.

Notably, the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was recently present in an event on so-called "solidarity day on Kashmir". 

Under former PM Mahathir, the New Delhi-Kuala Lumper ties have hit a nadir. 

Besides him, President Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisation (MAPIM) Mohd Azmi Abd Hamid was also present. 

The MAPIM is an umbrella organisation of Muslim NGOs in Malaysia that had organised a visit of delegation on NGOs to POK in 2019. 

Pakistani PM Imran Khan was quick to thank him in a tweet for speaking against India.

To mark one year of removal of special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan had done several anti-India things that include - releasing a new anti-India song, changing the name of a major highway in Islamabad to Srinagar highway and coming out with a new political map of Pakistan that shows the Indian territories as part of its own.

India has dismissed the new map of Pakistan calling it "an exercise in political absurdity" and "ridiculous assertions" which neither "legal validity nor international credibility."