Barely hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a pre-recorded address at the 75th United Nations General Assembly on Friday, once again raised the Kashmir issue at the global stage, India slammed its estranged kin by exercising the ‘Right to Reply’ and said that Khan’s words “demean the very essence of the United Nations”.
First Secretary of Indian Mission to the UN Mijito Vinito had earlier walked out of the hall when Khan’s statement was being played at the forum.
“The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India. The rules and legislation brought in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are strictly internal affairs of India,” India said in its response.
Vinito slammed Pakistan’s nefarious acts of terrorism in the Indian sub-continent and other neighbouring regions, stating that Imran Khan “is the same person who called terrorist Osama Bin Laden a ‘martyr’ in his Parliament in July”.
“This Hall heard the incessant rant of someone who had nothing to show for himself, who had no achievements to speak of, and no reasonable suggestion to offer to the world. Instead, we saw lies, misinformation, warmongering, and malice spread through this Assembly. The words used today at this great Assembly by the leader of Pakistan (Imran Khan) demean the very essence of the United Nations,” Vinito said.
The anti-India statement by the Pakistan Prime Minister and India’s response makes it our third Right of Reply, while the first two were also in response to Pakistan raking up the Kashmir issue during the ongoing 75th UNGA earlier this week.
“For a nation that is deeply buried in medievalism, it is understandable that the tenets of modern civilised society such as peace, dialogue and diplomacy are farfetched. This is the country that brought genocide to South Asia 39 years ago when it killed its own people. This is also the country that is shameless enough not to offer a sincere apology for the horrors it perpetrated even after so many years. This is the same country that provides pensions for dreaded and listed terrorists out of State funds. This is the same country that has the dubious distinction of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the United Nations,” the Indian delegate said.
Tearing into Imran Khan, Vinito said that Pakistan “systematically cleansed its minorities” and did not even spare “fellow Muslims from a different sect”.
“The same leader who spewed venom today admitted in 2019 in public in the US that his country still has about 30,000-40,000 terrorists who have been trained by Pakistan and have fought in Afghanistan and in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This is the country that has systematically cleansed its minorities including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and others, through the abuse of its blasphemy laws and through forced religious conversions. Pakistan was characterised as someone who professes to be a champion of Islam. This is also a country that has encouraged killing of fellow Muslims merely because they belonged to a different sect, or to a different region in Pakistan, and through sponsoring terrorist attacks against its neighbors,” the First Secretary said.
Reiterating India’s stand that the only way Pakistan can become a “normal country” is by ending its support to terrorist organisation, India at UN said, “What should rather be on the agenda of the UN is Pakistan’s deep state and its unrelenting political and financial support to terrorist organisations and mercenaries which are a threat to global peace and security. The only crowning glory that this country has to show to the world for the last 70 years is terrorism, ethnic cleansing, majoritarian fundamentalism, and clandestine nuclear trade. The only way for Pakistan to become a normal country is to abjure its moral, financial and material support to terrorism, turn its attention to the problems faced by its own population including its minorities and stop misusing UN platforms to further its nefarious agenda.”
What Imran Khan said at UNGA
Earlier on Friday, Khan in his address tried to paint a rosy picture of Pakistan and claimed that his country “always called for a peaceful resolution” on the Kashmir matter, and condemned the abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019.
“Pakistan has always called for a peaceful solution. To this end, India must rescind the measures it has instituted since August 5 in 2019, end its military siege and other gross human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir,” he had said.
In the immediate response to Khan, India said, “The only dispute left in Kashmir relates to the part of Kashmir that is still under illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to vacate all those areas that it is in illegal occupation of.”
TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the UN, tweeted after Khan’s address that India would use the ‘Right to Reply’ facility to respond to the Pakistani premier’s address.
“PM of Pakistan statement a new diplomatic low – at 75th UN General Assembly. Another litany of vicious falsehood, personal attacks, war mongering and obfuscation of Pakistan’s persecution of its own minorities & of its cross-border terrorism. Befitting Right of Reply awaits,” he said on social media platform Twitter.
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