New Delhi:
India issued a stern warning to Pakistan today at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) following Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s speech, in which he raised the Jammu and Kashmir issue. India firmly responded by stating that Pakistan’s continued support for cross-border terrorism will “inevitably invite consequences.”
India’s First Secretary to the UN, Bhavika Mangalanandan, delivered a pointed rebuttal alleging Pakistan’s complicity in global terrorism and citing its long history of using cross-border terrorism as a state policy. Ms Mangalanandan’s statement came in response to Mr Sharif’s call for India to reverse its 2019 abrogation of Article 370, which revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and his demands for a dialogue between the two countries.
“This Assembly regrettably witnessed a travesty this morning. A country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy,” Ms Mangalanandan said. “The world can see for itself what Pakistan really is.”
The First Secretary described Mr Sharif’s speech as audacious, given Pakistan’s international “reputation for terrorism”, narcotics trade, and transnational crime. “A country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism…has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy,” she said, referencing attacks orchestrated by Pakistan-based terror groups, including the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
