Sushma Swaraj exposes Pakistan's 'duplicity' on terror at UNGA

Siddhant Sibbal

Exposing Pakistan's duplicity on terror, India lashed out at Islamabad for abetting and aiding terrorist and terrorist groups.

Speaking at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), India's External Affairs Minister Sushma 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."

Highlighting how Pakistan gave safe haven to the architect and ideologue of 9/11 Osama Bin Laden, she said, "mastermind of 26/11 Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity."

Pakistan was recently put on Financial Action Task Force or FATF's grey list making it difficult for the country to take loans from the international market.

New Delhi said that "Pakistan's commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit."

It is interesting to know that India isn't the only neighbouring country to raise the issue of terror emanating from Pakistan, Afghanistan was the first country.

Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah who represented his country at the annual meeting said terror "breeding grounds and sanctuaries" need to be shut but the "response has been sparse."

Talks and terror can't go together

On the recent proposal of talks by the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, EAM said, "We accepted the proposal. But, within hours of our acceptance, news came that terrorists had killed three of our jawans. Does this indicate a desire for dialogue?"

Pakistani PM Imran Khan had proposed a meet between Indian external affairs minister and Pakistan's FM Qureshi on the sidelines of UNGA. India had initially said yes but after the killing of jawans had called off the meet.

This is not the first time India has faced such a situation with Pakistan.

Indian PM Narendra Modi had made a stopover in Lahore on 25th December 2015 but with a week a terror attack took place on Indian army base in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian PM also invited all head of SAARC countries during his swearing-in 2014.

India also slammed Pakistan for glorifying terrorist as so-called freedom fighters, saying "it refuses to see the blood of innocents."

India has been calling common definition on terrorism and had proposed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in 1996 but that draft has remained a draft, because "we cannot agree on a common language."

The external affairs minister appealed to UNGA "to come to an agreement, soon, on CCIT as one of the necessary measures in a long-running war"