New Delhi: India on Saturday hit out at Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for his “anti-India” tirade on Friday.
Mijito Vinito, the first secretary of the Indian Mission to the United Nations, said Sharif’s claims over the Kashmir issue are false. He also accused Islamabad of indulging in “cross-border terrorism”.
He added, “It is regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan has chosen the platform of this assembly to make false accusations against India. He has done so to obfuscate misdeeds in his own country and to justify actions against India.”
In what seemed to be a reference to Dawood Ibrahim, Vinito said the country that claims to seek peace with its neighbours, would never shelter conspirators of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
“A polity that claims it seeks peace with its neighbours would never sponsor cross border terrorism. Nor would it shelter planners of the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, disclosing their existence only under pressure from the international community,” Vinito added.
Reiterating that India’s stand is “normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence”, Vinito said Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country.
Vinito also referred to incidents of forced abduction and marriage of girls from Hindu, Sikh and Christian families in Pakistan and said it’s ironic that the country which has committed “grave violation of minority rights” is speaking about minorities on a global platform.
“The desire for peace, security and progress in the Indian subcontinent is real. It is also widely shared. That will surely happen when cross-border terrorism ceases, when governments come clean with the international community and their own people, when minorities are not persecuted and, not least, when we recognize these realities before this Assembly,” he said.
Vinito’s rebuttal came after Sharif had said that Pakistan wants peace by it is only possible after a “just and lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute”.