Pakistan is now ‘terroristan'': India tells UN after Abbasi''s attack

Smita Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, September 22

Terrorism remained the key theme as India went all guns blazing  at Pakistan-sponsored terror at the United Nations General Assembly sessions and sideline meetings on Friday. 

First up no words were minced as a young diplomat Eanam Gambhir, called Pakistan “terroristan” in India’s right to reply during the General Debate at the 72nd session. 
 

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“In its short history, Pakistan has become geography synonymous with terror. The quest for a land of the pure has actually produced ‘the land of pure terror’. Pakistan is now terroristan,” she said.

India was replying to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahi Khaqan Abbasi’s speech earlier where he had accused India of terrorism and called for a UN envoy on Kashmir. 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj participating in the BRICS ministerial meeting along the sidelines emphasised upon the need for collective efforts to “disrupt terrorist networks, their financing and movement” and early conclusion and adoption of the CCIT (Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism) in the UN.

Taking a jibe at the neighbour across the LoC, Sushma said, "Terror groups continue to draw sustenance from support systems, including those based in South Asia. They continue to find support and shelter in countries, which use terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Countering terrorism must not be a matter of political convenience."

The BRICS meet attended by Sushma’s Chinese counterpart Wang Yi among others in its joint release said, “The Ministers reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They urged concerted efforts to counter terrorism on a firm international legal basis, under the UN auspices, and expressed their conviction that a comprehensive approach was necessary to ensure effective fight against terrorism.”

But unlike the joint statement issued after the recent BRICS summit meet in Xiamen, the New York statement did not mention terror groups “Taliban, ISIL/DAISH, Al-Qaida and its affiliates, including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizb ut-Tahrir”.

India’s tone on terror was much measured though at the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. With the foreign minister of Pakistan, the new full member alongside India, in the room, Sushma welcomed the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. 

She said, “There can be no justification whatsoever for any acts of terrorism. We are determined to consistently strengthen cooperation within the SCO framework and to work together to seek comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security.” 

The India-Pakistan foreign ministers also shared space during the annual SAARC ministerial meet on the sidelines even as the bilateral freeze in relations continue.