How can India pursue talks with a country that glorifies ‘killers’: Sushma Swaraj
“Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of Pakistan’s behaviour,” Sushma Swaraj said.
New York, September 29, 2018: Pakistan’s duplicity is a key obstacle in the global fight against terrorism and India is an immediate and continuing target of terrorism originating from there, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Saturday.
Debunking Pakistani assertions that India was sabotaging peace talks, she said New Delhi believed “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 Pakistan’s behaviour”.
EAM @SushmaSwaraj:Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behavior, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers; it refuses to see the blood of innocents. pic.twitter.com/508EjveHxR
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) September 29, 2018
Addressing the 73rd session of the UNGA, Swaraj said, “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 climate change and terrorism were the two biggest existential threats to the world. “To save the world from the adverse effects of climate change, developed nations must lift the deprived with financial and technical resources,” she said.
On the second challenge, Swaraj said, “The demon of terrorism now stalks the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but life threatening everywhere.”The foreign minister noted that in India’s case, “terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border to the west”, pointing a finger at Pakistan.
“The most startling evidence of this duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 9/11 was given safe haven in Pakistan….that claimed to be America’s friend and ally,” Ms. Swaraj said in searing speech, trying to put Islamabad in the dock for the tensions in the region.
“The killers of 9/11 met their fate; but the mastermind of 26/11 Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity,” the Minister said, comparing the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States with the 2008 November terrorist attack on Mumbai. India is always willing to talk to Pakistan, but continuing terrorist attacks have made peace process impossible, she said.
Though the international community has become increasingly aware of Pakistan’s role in promoting terrorism, the absence of an international agreement on the definition of terrorism allows Pakistan to characterise terrorists as “freedom fighters,” Ms. Swaraj said.
Though the international community has become increasingly aware of Pakistan’s role in promoting terrorism, the absence of an international agreement on the definition of terrorism allows Pakistan to characterise terrorists as “freedom fighters,” Ms. Swaraj said.
