Responding to Pakistan’s statement, India’s UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin levelled familiar charges that Pakistan supports terrorism and covets the territory of other countries, obviously meaning Kashmir.
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Appreciating the role of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, who was killed in a gunfight with the Indian army on Friday, he said that the 22-year-old martyr has given a new hope to Kashmiri people for fighting for freedom from Indian occupation. While highlighting the disputed nature of the territory, the Foreign Secretary also emphatically rejected the Indian attempts to claim that the deteriorating situation in IHK is an internal affair of the India. “Since this is a domestic issue, we see no reason to involve Pakistan”, Swarup said. Terrorism is terrorism. No amount of justification on Pakistan’s part is going to change it. Our internal affairs are exclusively ours to handle. A range of lawmakers, analysts, and diplomats called Pakistan a terrorist entity, said it should be denied foreign aid, and proposed that its leaders, including its military generals, be sanctioned and stopped from traveling to the United States for consistently cheating the world community on terrorism.
Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting scheduled to be chaired by the PM in Lahore will discuss the oppressive actions of Indian security forces against innocent civilians and the overall situation in Kashmir after brutal assassination of Burhan Wani, said a statement issued by the PM’s Media Office on Tuesday.
“Regrettably, earlier today we have seen an attempt at misuse of this United Nations platform”.
“He alleged that Pakistan was the same country whose track record had failed to convince the global community to gain membership of the Human Rights Council in this very session of the UNGA”.
India talked tough after Pakistan, over the past few days, tried to internationalise the issue of Kashmir.
“Cynical attempts, like the one this morning therefore, find no resonance in this forum or elsewhere in the United Nations”, the Indian envoy added. He also said that recent comments by Pakistan after the killing of Wani, Hizbul commander, reflect its continued attachment to terrorism and its usage as an instrument of State policy.
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Notwithstanding India’s sharp response, Pakistan has demanded a UN-backed independent and transparent inquiry into the “extra-judicial” killings in Kashmir, terming the situation there a “grave threat to peace and security”.
