Kashmir ours, Pak has to stop dreaming: Sushma

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 26

India today made a case for isolating Pakistan globally at the United Nations when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj questioned as to why some nations take no action against terrorists holding rallies in full public view on their soil and said “there is no place for such nations in the international community”.

“These nations, in which UN-designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour,” she said.  “The world needs to isolate countries that do not want to act against terrorists,” she said.

Her statement reflected a continuation of the grand strategy that the government has adopted after the Uri terror attack — to isolate Pakistan globally.

In an address that was marked by restraint, the minister, however, made it a point to make a rebuttal on the charges brought against India by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who addressed the UN assembly a few days ago. She also stated very clearly that “Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India and Pakistan needs to stop dreaming”. 

She rebutted Sharif’s charges of human rights violations in India by asking Pakistan to look into its own backyard and said, “Pakistan needs to introspect, including on the brutalities in Balochistan.” The Baloch card is another issue that India has now been consistently raising at various multilateral fora in an attempt to push Pakistan back when it raises the bogey of rights violations in India.

The minister also rubbished Sharif’s allegation that India is the one that has set preconditions for a dialogue. Instead, she pointed out, India had offered friendship to Pakistan and in return India got “Pathankot, Bahadur Ali and Uri”. 

Making the point that terrorism today is not just an India-Pakistan problem, but a menace that has spread globally, she said, “The terror apparatus that was behind 26/11 was also behind Uri. They were behind several terror attacks the world over.” She also called terrorism as the “biggest violator of human rights since it targets the innocent”.

Towards the end of her address, she appealed to the global community: “We should adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism to develop norms to prosecute terrorists.”