India on Wednesday called Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism” and told the country to stop its “futile quest” for Kashmir, PTI reported. India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin rejected Pakistani accusations that New Delhi posed a threat to peace and security in South-East Asia through its recent “declarations and actions”.
In a statement, he said, “The state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so”. Akbaruddin added that the “misuse” of international platforms by Islamabad will not change that fact, and said that Pakistan’s “anachronistic approach” to the issue “finds no resonance among the international community”. “They use terrorists as proxies in their territorial quests,” he said, according to the Hindustan Times.
Akbaruddin further called on the UN to adopt a consistent policy to deal with global terrorism. The diplomat said the body was yet to “sanction leaders of organisations it has itself designated as terrorist entities”. “The global governance architecture now calls for comprehensive reform." he said.
Relations between the two neighbours have soured since a militant attack on an Army camp in Uri, in which 18 soldiers were killed while two others succumbed to their injuries later. India last week had said it carried out surgical strikes along the LoC on September 29, but Pakistan had denied any such operations and said it was nothing but cross-border firing. Pakistan also denied India’s accusation that it was involved in the Uri attack. On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said that Islamabad wanted “peace in the region”.
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