India on Friday exercised its right to respond to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, ANI reported.
First Secretary Ministry of External Affairs, Vidisha Maitra, said the world will verify Khan’s statement that no militant organisations are present in Pakistan anymore. “Can Pakistan Prime Minister confirm that it is home to 130 United Nations designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the UN,” she asked.
She said Khan’s threat of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan qualifies as “brinksmanship not statesmanship”, according to ANI.
Maitra also questioned if Pakistan will acknowledge that it is the only government in the world that provides a pension to an individual listed by the United Nations in the Al-Qaeda and ISIS group. “Will Pakistan deny that Financial Action Task Force has put the country on notice for its violations of more than 20 of the 27 key parameters,” she added. “And would PM Imran Khan deny to the city of New York that he was an open defender of Osama bin Laden?”
She said Pakistan has reduced the size of it minority community from 23% in 1947 to 3% till date, and subjected Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Shias, Pashtuns, Sindhis among others to draconian blasphemy laws, systemic persecution, blatant abuse and forced conversions.
Maitra lashed out at Khan’s comments and said the citizens of India do not need anyone else to speak on their behalf, and especially those who have built “an industry of terrorism from the ideology of hate”.
Khan had on Friday attacked India for its decision to revoke the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir and for imposing a lockdown in the region. Khan had said that the world body must urge India to lift prohibitory orders in Kashmir and insist on the region’s right to self-determination. “Don’t you think that 180 million Muslims will be radicalised in India as they see 8 million Kashmiris locked up?” Khan had asked the delegates. “And what about 1.3 billion Muslims who are watching this knowing that this is only happening to Kashmiri Muslims?”
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the world must unite to fight the scourge of terrorism. He highlighted his government’s achievements during its five years in power, but made no mention of Pakistan.
Pakistan had reacted to India’s decision to scrap special status for Jammu and Kashmir by suspending trade, downgrading diplomatic ties and writing letters to the United Nations.
Through the past week, both Modi and External Affairs Minster S Jaishankar have either explicitly or implicitly called out Pakistan for its support of cross-border terror.
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