India on Friday said at the United Nations General Assembly that Pakistan should take credible and verifiable action against the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks whose victims await justice even after 15 years, reported PTI.
First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Petal Gahlot exercised the right of reply after Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar said that Kashmir is the key to peace between the two countries.
He urged the UN Security Council to secure the implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir and said the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan should be reinforced to supervise ceasefire agreement between the tow countries. The UN has passed number of resolutions including a plebiscite which would allow Jammu and Kashmir to choose between India and Pakistan.
On Friday, India responded to Kakar’s statement at the General Assembly reiterating that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral part of India. Gahlot also said that Pakistan has not grounds to comment on India’s domestic matters.
“Pakistan has been the home and patron to the largest number of internationally proscribed terrorist entities and individuals in the world,” she said. “Instead of engaging in technical sophistry, we call upon Pakistan to take credible and verifiable action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, whose victims await justice even after 15 years.”
On November 26, 2008, 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists took a sea route from Pakistan to Mumbai and carried out a dozen coordinated shooting and bombing attacks at various major landmarks across the city. The attacks had resulted in the deaths of 166 persons, including 26 foreigners.
Last year, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan had sentenced Lashkar-e-Taiba founder and one of the main accused in the attack, Hafiz Saeed to 32 years’ imprisonment in two terror financing cases.
On Friday, India also said that Pakistan needs to take three-fold action to maintain peace in South Asia.
“First, stop cross-border terrorism and shut down its infrastructure of terrorism immediately,” India said. “Second, vacate Indian territories under its illegal and forcible occupation, and third, stop the grave and persistent human rights violations against the minorities in Pakistan.”
Gahlot cited last month’s communal violence in Pakistan’s Punjab province where 19 churches were burnt and several homes vandalised after accusations of blasphemy. She also accused Pakistan of misusing the UN platform to peddle “baseless and malicious” propaganda against India.
“Similar treatment has been meted out to the Ahmadiyyas whose places of worship have been demolished,” she said.
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