Warning over South Asia tension
PAKISTANI Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accused nuclear-armed rival India of putting unacceptable conditions on dialogue and said the world would ignore rising tension in South Asia at its peril.
Sharif told the annual UN General Assembly that Pakistan could not ignore India’s “unprecedented” arms build-up and would “take whatever measures are necessary to maintain credible deterrence”.
India has accused Pakistan of being behind a deadly attack on an army base in the disputed Kashmir region on Sunday in which 18 soldiers were killed and said it had the right to respond when and where it chose.
Pakistan has rejected the allegation and accused India of apportioning blame before the incident had been investigated.
Sharif said Pakistan wanted peace with India and had repeatedly offered dialogue.
“But India has posed unacceptable preconditions. Talks are in the interests of both countries. They are essential to resolve our differences, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and to avert the danger of any escalation.”
India has long accused Pakistan of playing a role in the 27-yearlong insurgency against its rule in Jammu and Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state.
Pakistan denies sending fighters into Indian-administered Kashmir.
India says it will only discuss terrorism-related issues, whereas Pakistan wants a wider agenda that would include the Kashmir question.
Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan since 1947, is at the heart of the neighbours’ seven decades of distrust.
Two of their three wars since independence from Britain have been fought over the region.
India’s portion of Kashmir has been under a major security lockdown during more than two months of protests sparked by the July 8 killing by Indian security forces of Burhan Wani, a popular young commander of the Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen, whose leader is based in Pakistan.
Sharif praised Wani as “the symbol of the latest Kashmiri Intifada, a popular and peaceful freedom movement”.
“Pak PM Sharif at #UNGA glorifies Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani in UN’s highest forum. Shows continued Pak attachment to terrorism,” the Indian ministry spokesman, Vikas Swarup, wrote on Twitter.
Sharif repeated a Pakistani call on the UN and the international community to investigate atrocities it alleges have been committed by Indian forces in Kashmir.
“The international community ignores the dangers of rising tension in South Asia at its own peril.”
India rejected Sharif’s remarks in a statement to the UN General Assembly from Eenam Gambhir, a senior diplomat at its UN mission.
“It is ironical… that we have seen today the preaching of human rights and ostensible support for self-determination by a country which has established itself as the global epicentre of terrorism,” she said.
Sunday’s attack was “part of a trail of continuous flow of terrorists trained and armed by our neighbour”. – Reuters