United Nations: India on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly, calling out the neighbouring country for sponsoring terrorism and blaming it for the stalled dialogue process.
Addressing the General Debate of the Assembly’s 73rd session, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy had not abated one bit.
Swaraj said the 9/11 terror attack in New York and 26/11 in Mumbai had shattered the dream of peace in the 21st century. She said even as the perpetrators of 9/11 met their fate, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack Hafiz Saeed was roaming the streets of Pakistan with impunity.
“In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border. Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity," she said. "Pakistan's commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy," Swaraj added.
She also took a dig at Pakistan for alleging that the process of talks was stalled because of India. “We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behaviour," she said.
Giving instances of the neighbour’s double speak, the minister said newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks but “just days later, our soldiers were targeted".
She said the most startling evidence of Pakistan's duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of the 9/11 terror attack, was given safe haven in the country. Even after the world's most wanted terrorist was killed by America, "Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened," she said.
Swaraj added, “America had declared Osama bin Laden its most dangerous enemy, and launched an exhaustive, worldwide search to bring him to justice. What America perhaps could not comprehend was that Osama would get sanctuary in a country that claimed to be America's friend and ally: Pakistan."
The minister, however, said it was “heartening" that the world was no longer ready to believe Islamabad, citing that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had put Pakistan on notice over terror funding.
Swaraj also took a dig at Pakistan for alleging that the process of talks was stalled because of India. “We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behaviour," she said.
Relations between the two countries have been on the edge since Indian called off talks with Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi three special officers were abducted and killed in Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that the neighbour “would not mend its ways".
Swaraj also snubbed Pakistan at the sidelines of the General Assembly when she left a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers early, which was attended by Qureshi.
Pakistan has alleged that India's "domestic political and electoral compulsions" were behind New Delhi's reluctance to talk to the new government in Islamabad.
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