“108 people have been martyred in Kashmir over the past two-and-a-half months and India is hurling allegations at Pakistan”, the Prime Minister said.
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M J Akbar, minister of state for India’s external affairs, joined the anti-Pakistan tirade and branded Sharif’s speech at the United Nations as “immature” and “full of threats”.
Exercising India’s Right of Reply to Sharif’s “long tirade” about the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Eenam Gambhir said “the worst violation of human rights is terrorism”. “As far as the so called dossier Mr. Nawaz Sharif spoke of in his speech, we find no mention of it in UN Secretary General’s statement”. Akbar added that Pakistan wants a dialogue while at the same time being armed.
India is taking Pakistan head-on in its bid to counter terrorism that emanates from the neighbouring country’s soil, and its latest briefing the MEA has said, “Pakistan must dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism if it has to be seen as a responsible member of the committee of United Nations”.
India has said it would only discuss terrorism-related issues, whereas Pakistan wants a wider agenda that would, among other things, discuss the Kashmir question. Wani is declared commander of Hizbul, widely acknowledged as a terror group.
Surjewala ridiculed Sharif’s claim of an “intifada” (uprising) in the Kashmir valley and said his “conspiratorial omission” to Uri Attack is a public admission of guilt. He repeated Pakistan’s age-old rhetoric on Kashmir and said that Pakistan “completely supports Kashmir’s demand for self-determination”. Pakistan’s consistent use of terrorism has been at the cost of development.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz Thursday said that Pakistan was ready for unconditional dialogue with India to solve several issues including the core topic of Kashmir between the two nations. “We have always been ready for a dialogue, but we will not succumb to the blackmail tactics of a government in Islamabad that seems eager to use terrorist and terrorism as policy”, Akbar told reporters in NY. New Delhi says the militants came from Pakistan and has moved to isolate Islamabad globally.
Addressing a press conference moments after Sharif’s address, Akbar stated that Pakistan seemed to be run by a war machine rather than a government.
The MEA spokesperson said that India was successful in “sensitizing the world” about how Pakistan was sponsoring terrorism.
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Sharif also talked about Afghanistan, which earlier alleged that “merciless” terror attacks against its civilians are being planned and organized in Pakistan which trains, equips and finances terror groups like Taliban and Haqqani network.
