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The message that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India should be ‘loud and clear’ to Pakistan, India on Monday asserted and asked whether it can clarify how terror safe havens continue to flourish on its soil despite billions of dollars of anti-terrorism aid it gets.
In its 'Right of Reply', India also rejected the 'fanciful and misleading' remarks by the Pakistani envoy to the United Nations.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi earlier exercised the Right of Reply to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s UN General Assembly address, saying Swaraj’s remarks were a ‘litany of falsehoods’ about Pakistan and a ‘travesty of facts and history’.
Lodhi said Jammu and Kashmir can never be an integral part of India and is a ‘disputed territory’, the final status of which has yet to be determined in accordance with several resolutions of the UN Security Council.
Responding to Pakistan’s RoR, India reaffirmed that Kashmir is and always will be an integral part of India.
“...It appears that the distinguished representative of Pakistan did not hear clearly what our Minister of External Affairs stated during her address earlier today,” First Secretary in the Indian Mission to the UN Eenam Gambhir said, exercising India’s Right of Reply to Lodhi’s remarks.
Quoting from Swaraj’s address, Gambhir said Jammu and Kashmir is India's integral part and will always remain so.
“We hope that the message is loud and clear,” she said.
Gambhir said India rejects ‘entirely’ Lodhi’s ‘sermons’, calling her remarks ‘the views of a dysfunctional state which builds atrocity upon atrocity on its own people, preaching about values of tolerance, democracy and human rights’.
Through the RoR, India slammed Pakistan for making a ‘fanciful and misleading’ presentation on the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, saying Lodhi’s remarks aim to divert the attention from Pakistan’s sponsorship of terror and do not answer questions posed by the world community.
“Can the representative of Pakistan clarify how is it that terror sanctuaries and safe havens in her country continue to flourish despite the Pakistan army’s much-vaunted counter terrorism operations, and the billions of dollars of international counter terrorism aid it obtains?
“Can the representative of Pakistan confirm that they do not use terrorist proxies and export terrorism as a matter of state policy,” Gambhir said, adding that can the Pakistani envoy deny that her country had assured in 2004 that it would not allow its territories, or territories under its control, to be used for terror attacks against India?
“And can the representative of Pakistan deny that it has failed to honour that assurance given at the highest level,” Gambhir said.
She also questioned whether the Pakistani representative will deny the armed forces of her country committed one of the most extensive and heinous genocides in human history in 1971.
“Will the representative of Pakistan deny that its armed forces have used air strikes and artillery against its own people repeatedly? Will (she) explain why is it that Pakistan’s civil society is being silenced by the plethora of heavily armed militias that go by names such as ‘Jaish’ or Army, ‘Lashkar’ or Army, ‘Sipah’ or Soldiers and ‘Harkat’ or Armed movement,” Gambhir said.
In her Right of Reply, Lodhi said the Uri attack was ‘staged’ to ‘divert’ attention from the situation in Kashmir.
‘The attack on the Indian Army base in Uri, particularly its timing, has all the hallmarks of an operation designed to divert attention’ from the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, she said.
She accused India of ‘utilising’ the Uri incident to blame Pakistan for the current Kashmiri uprising.
“India’s government is delusional if it believes that it can ‘isolate’ any country. It is India itself, which because of its war crimes in Kashmir and elsewhere, and because of its warmongering, is likely to be isolated in the international community,” Lodhi said.
The Pakistani envoy said Swaraj’s statement reflects the ‘deceit and hostility’ of the Indian government towards Pakistan.
In a Right of Reply exercised post Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s address to the UNGA, India had accused Islamabad of committing war crimes by using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
Lodhi in her Right of Reply said the call for ‘freedom’ of the Kashmiri people has been met with ‘Indian brutality’ and demanded an impartial investigation into the rights violations in Kashmir.
In response to Swaraj's reference to Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, arrested in Kashmir, Lodhi said the recently captured ‘Indian spy, an intelligence officer’, Kulbhushan Jadhav, has ‘confessed’ to India’s support to such terrorist and subversive activities particularly in Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
“Indeed, it was Kulbhushan, who was financing, arming and supporting individuals and entities listed under the UN sanctions regime,” Lodhi said.
She said India’s ‘policy of interference’ in Pakistan and attempt to destabilise Balochistan are now on record. “This is blatant violation of the principles of the UN Charter.”
Lodhi blamed India for suspending talks with Pakistan more than a year ago, saying New Delhi has refused to resume them despite repeated offers from Pakistan and advice from the international community.
“The latest offer was made by the prime minister of Pakistan from the rostrum of this very assembly. But let us be clear, talks are no favour to Pakistan. They are in the interest of both India and Pakistan and the people of our two countries.
“Let me reiterate that Pakistan is ready and willing for serious and result-oriented talks with India, especially to resolve the longstanding core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir, which is imperative for durable peace, stability and development in the region.”
In a second Right of Reply, Pakistan reiterated that Kashmir remains an internationally-recognised disputed territory.
Gambhir responded by saying that Pakistan has yet again ‘chosen to stay silent’ on the tough questions.
“This is what we have come to expect from Pakistan -- deception, deceit and denial. The world still waits their response,” Gambhir said.
IMAGE: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj addresses the United Nations General Assembly. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters