Pak cooked up India link to terror, says envoy at UN
India on Sunday strongly hit back at Pakistan for the “preposterous allegation” of its foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the UN General Assembly that terrorists behind the 2014 attack on a Peshawar school were “supported” by India.
New Delhi said that Islamabad’s “despicable insinuation” dishonours the memory of the children killed in the assault. Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations Saad Warraich on Sunday trained guns at RSS and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to allege that there was no room for dissent in “illiberal India of today”. Mr Warraich accused the RSS, BJP’s ideological mentor, of supporting the spread of fascism through its centres. Indian diplomat from the country’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Eenam Gambhir, described Pakistan’s allegation as a “desperate attempt” to look away from the monster of terror that Pakistan has created.
India on Sunday strongly hit back at Pakistan for the “preposterous allegation” its foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made at the UN General Assembly that terrorists behind the 2014 attack on a Peshawar school were “supported” by India, saying the “despicable insinuation” dishonours the me- mory of the children kill- ed in the assault. New Delhi also scoffed at the new Imran Khan- led Pakistani government’s claim of ushering in a “naya ( new) Pakistan”, saying, that what Pakistan’s “new” foreign minister had said “was a ‘ New Pakistan’ cast in the mold of old”.
Making a highly outrageous claim, the Pakistan foreign minister said earlier, “Pakistan shall never forget the mass murder of more than 150 children in a Peshawar School, the terrible Mastung attack and many others that have links with terrorists supported by India.”
Reeling under external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s blistering attack on Saturday that had put Islamabad on the mat on the issue of terrorism at the UN General Assembly, a furious Pakistan in turn on Sunday accused India and the RSS of terrorism at the UNGA on Sunday. A Pakistani diplomat at the UNGA, while exercising Islamabad’s first right of reply said, “The breeding ground of terrorism in our region are the RSS centres of fascism. The claims of religious superiority are perpetrated through state patronage all across India.”
But Indian diplomat from the country’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Eenam Gambhir, exercised India’s Right of Reply and rejected Islamabad’s baseless allegations. “Among the most outrageous was the preposterous allegation relating to the horrific terror attack on a Peshawar school four years ago,” Ms Gambhir said. Ms Gambhir also took a dig at Mr Qureshi’s emph- asis on a “new Pakistan” under Mr Khan, saying while the Indian delegation had come to listen to Pakistan’s “new” foreign minister outline the vision of a new Pakistan, “what we heard is a ‘ New Pak- istan’ cast in the mold of old.”
She reminded the new Pakistan government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, that there was an outpouring of sorrow and pain in India following the massacre of children in 2014. She said both the Houses of India’s Parliament had expressed solidarity while paying respects to those killed.
“Schools all over India had observed two minutes of silence in their memory. The despicable insinuation made by the foreign minister of Pakistan dishonours the memory of the innocent lives lost to terrorists that day,” Ms Gambhir said. She said the allegation was a “desperate attempt” to look away from the monster of terror Pakistan has created in its quest to destabilise its neighbours and covet their territory.
The Peshawar attack was carried out by heavilyarmed 8- 10 Taliban suicide bombers, who stormed the Army- run school and took several hostages. The attackers wearing paramilitary Frontier Corps uniforms had entered the school and started indiscriminate firing.
Ms Gambhir tore into Pakistan’s claim that it has turned the tide against terrorism, saying a factcheck of this claim will give a different picture. She asked if Pakistan can deny the fact that it is the “host and patron” of 132 of the UN- designated terrorists and 22 terrorist entities listed under the UN Security Council Sanctions regimes.
“Will Pakistan deny that the UN- designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed enjoys a free run inside Pakistan and spews venom and sets up candidates for electoral offices,” she said.
With Mr Qureshi again raking up the Kashmir issue, Ms Gambhir asserted that India is making it clear to the “new government” of Pakistan that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India. India also ripped through efforts of the ‘ New Pakistan’ to champion human rights.