NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday tore into Pakistan at the United Nations and warned that its cross-border terrorism policy can and will never succeed. Citing Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif‘s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) speech where he accused New Delhi of “escalating tensions” in Kashmir, Jaishankar also warned that Islamabad’s “actions will most certainly have consequences”.
Addressing the UNGA, Jaishankar said that the “issue to be resolved between the two countries is only the vacation of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by Islamabad and the abandonment of its long-standing attachment to terrorism.”
“Some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbor Pakistan. Unfortunately, the mystics affect others as well, especially the neighbors. When this quality instills such fanaticism among its people, Its GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalisation against exports in the form of terrorism,” Jaishankar said.
“We heard some bizarre assertions from this very forum yesterday. Let me make India’s position very clear – Pakistan’s policy of cross-border terrorism will never succeed. And it can have no expectation of impunity. On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences. The issue to be resolved between us is only the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan and of course, abandonment of Pakistan’s long-standing attachment to terrorism,” he added.
This comes a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif remarks, calling India to reverse its “unilateral and illegal” actions in Jammu and Kashmir, referring to the 2019 revocation of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu & Kashmir.
“India spurned Pakistan’s proposals for a mutual strategic restraint to the regime. Its leadership has often threatened to cross the line of control and take over Azad Kashmir,” Shehbaz Sharif claimed.
Soon after his remarks, the first secretary of India’s permanent mission to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan also responded sharply in UNGA and, in turn, highligted Pakistan’s usage of cross-border terrorism as a key strategy against India, citing numerous incidents, including the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
“The list is long,” Mangalanandan said in retort to Islamabad’s unfounded assertions. She further said that there can be “no compact with terrorism” and that Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism against India will “inevitably invite consequences”. “We are talking about a nation that for long hosted Osama bin Laden. A country whose fingerprints are on so many terrorist incidents across the world, whose policies attract the dregs of many societies to make it their home,” Mangalanandan said during India’s right of reply.
Mangalanandan in her response called Pakistan a “country run by the military” with a “global reputation for terrorism, narcotics, and transnational crime.”
She expressed disbelief that Pakistan, a nation known for these issues, would attack India, the world’s largest democracy, in such a forum.
“It is even more extraordinary for a country with a history of rigged elections to talk about political choices in a democracy,” Mangalanandan said.
