Stop dreaming about Kashmir — Sushma
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER RAKES UP RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BALOCHISTAN AMID TENSION WITH PAKISTAN
Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday told the United Nations that Pakistan should stop dreaming about capturing Kashmir because it is and will always remain an integral part of the country.
In a strong reply to Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last week, Sushma Swaraj hit out at the neighbour on the issue of terrorism and raked up the “human rights violations” in Balochistan.
She told the world body that India had offered an unconditional hand of friendship to Pakistan but got in return crossborder terror attacks.
“And what did we get in return? Pathankot, Bahadur Ali, and Uri,” she said in her speech in Hindi.
In his address to the UNGA, Nawaz Sharif last week praised Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander, whose killing has triggered a fresh wave of deadly unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.
‘No preconditions’
The Pakistan prime minister said his country wanted to have better ties with India and was open to an unconditional dialogue to resolve all issues, including Kashmir.
But Sushma Swaraj rebutted the claim that India has put any conditions for talks “which are not acceptable to him”.
“What preconditions? Did we impose any preconditions before extending an invitation for the swearing-in ceremony of our government? We took the initiative to resolve issues not on the basis of conditions, but on the basis of friendship. We conveyed Eid greetings to the prime minister of Pakistan, wished success to his cricket team, extended good wishes for his health and well being.
“Our Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] went to Lahore to wish Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Did all this come with conditions attached?”
She then listed recent terror attacks India has blamed on Pakistan.
Sushma Swaraj said the confession of Bahadur Ali, who was captured after a shoot-out in Kashmir, “is a living proof of Pakistan’s complicity in crossborder terror. But when confronted with such evidence, Pakistan remains in denial”.
She said Pakistan was under the mistaken belief that it can capture Kashmir with such attacks. “My firm advice to Pakistan is: Abandon this dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so.”
Taking a veiled dig at Pakistan, Swaraj said there are nations “in our midst” where UN designated terrorists roam freely and deliver “their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity”, an apparent reference to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.
She also made a strong pitch for isolating such nations who speak the language of terrorism and for whom sheltering terrorists has become “their calling card”.