Pak glorifies killers, it refuses to see blood of innocents: Swaraj at UNGA

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 29

Addressing the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj lashed out at Pakistan for glorifying terrorists and killers. “In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border. Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism, it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity,” Swaraj said, focusing on cross-border terrorism. 

“Pakistan glorifies killers, it refuses to see the blood of innocents,” she remarked, alluding to postage stamps released by Islamabad in July commemorating Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, among others. India had cited the killing of security personnel, including a BSF jawan, whose throat was slit, as well as the release of the stamps when it called off talks with Pakistan. However, Islamabad had argued that both had occurred prior to the announcement of talks by New Delhi. 

“We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are the only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behaviour,” Swaraj declared.

Pakistan Foreign Minister SM Qureshi, in an interaction with a prominent think tank, had claimed that PM Modi and his government had developed cold feet after accepting the talks offer along the UNGA sidelines because of “domestic and electoral compulsions.”

India and Pakistan have not had a structured dialogue since 2012. Swaraj also cited the case of Pakistan Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi displaying photographic proof of “human rights violations” by India in Kashmir last year which later turned out to be from another country. 

In her fourth address to the General Assembly on behalf of the BJP-led NDA government, Swaraj urged the need for the global community to deliver on the long-pending Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) .

“In 1996, India proposed a draft document on CCIT at the UN. Till today, that draft has remained a draft because we cannot agree on a common language. On the one hand we want to fight terrorism, on the other we cannot define it.” 

She broadly spoke about sustainable development goals as well as India’s commitment to the Climate Change Treaty.