Pak lies, glorifies killers: Sushma in UN tough talk
Minister says climate change, terrorism biggest challenges for world
WASHINGTON: India launched a frontal attack on Pakistan at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, calling it “an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity,” accusing it of funding and glorifying terrorists and warning of a “conflagration” if terrorism was not rooted out.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj blamed Pakistan’s continued support of terror for stalled peace efforts between the subcontinental neighbours, and — while defending India’s record on human rights — said there was no bigger transgressor of rights than a terrorist. Pakistan “glorifies killers” and “refuses to see the blood of innocents,” she said.
In her address to the General Assembly, Swaraj listed the Indian government’s development programmes, aimed at achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, before describing climate change and terrorism as the “biggest challenge of our era”.
“Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplic-
Cruelty and barbarism are advertised as heroism. The country (Pakistan) prints postage stamps glorifying terrorists...if we do not act now, we will have to deal with conflagration later SUSHMA SWARAJ, External affairs minister
ity,” Swaraj said in her fourth address to the world body.
Swaraj called on the UN to act on India’s proposal to pass a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, pending since 1996.
As the United Nations dithers because of failure to find common language, “terrorists with a price on their head are celebrated, financed and armed as liberation heroes by a country” that is a member of the world body, she added.
Swaraj, who spoke in Hindi, said Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy and “belief in hypocrisy” continues. Referring to the killing of al-qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011, she said, “The killers of 9/11 met their fate, but the mastermind of 26/11, Hafiz Saeed, still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity, organising rallies and participating in elections.”
Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-taiba, the Pakistan-based group that carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. He has sought to mainstream his group by launching a political front.