New York: Following another attempt by Pakistan to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, India described Pakistan as a country recognised globally as the epicentre of terrorism. During his address to a high-level meeting on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the UN, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said J&K and Palestine were the UN’s most glaring and long-standing disputes and the people of Jammu and Kashmir still awaited “fulfilment of the commitment made to them by the UN to grant them their right to self-determination”.
Exercising India’s right to reply, first secretary in India’s permanent mission to the UN, Vidisha Maitra, said Pakistan was a country which was globally recognised as the epicentre of terrorism, which by its own admission harboured and trained terrorists, and hailed them as martyrs and consistently persecuted its ethnic and religious minorities.
Maitra was referring to Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s remarks in the country’s Parliament where he had termed former Al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden as a martyr. “We reject the malicious reference made to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India. If there is an item that is unfinished on the agenda of the UN, it is that of tackling the scourge of terrorism,” Maitra said.
With Pakistan yet again raising the Kashmir issue at a UN platform, Maitra said India had hoped that during this solemn commemoration of a shared global milestone, the General Assembly would be spared another repetition of the baseless falsehoods that have now become a trademark of Pakistan’s interventions on such platforms.
“However, for a nation that is bereft of milestones, one can only expect a stonewalled and stymied approach to reason, diplomacy and dialogue. What we heard today is the never-ending fabricated narrative presented by the Pakistani representative about the internal affairs of India,” she said.
Strongly rejecting the malicious reference made to J&K, Maitra said Pakistan “will do well to turn its attention inwards to immediately address these pressing concerns instead of diverting attention from them by misusing UN platforms”.
