Addressing a press conference in New York, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, M. J. Akbar, strongly rebutted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s insidious statement at the UN General Assembly.
Here are the main points of Akbar’s counter:
India will not hold any dialogue with a Pakistan “run by a warmachine that holds the gun of terrorism and glorifies terrorists”.
Sharif had glorified a self-declared terrorist (Burhan Wani) belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen. By doing so, said Akbar, Sharif had exposed Pakistan as a supporter of terrorists and terrorism.
Akbar said that Sharif’s speech was full of bluster and signalled “rising immaturity and complete disregard of facts”.To Sharif’s assertion that Pakistan had gone the extra mile and repeatedly offered dialogue on all outstanding issues while India had been posing unacceptable preconditions to dialogue, Akbar said: “We haven’t seen the first mile (travelled by Pakistan towards peace), where is the question of the extra mile?”He added that while India was always ready for dialogue, it will not succumb to blackmail from Islamabad that is eager to use terrorists and terrorism.
Akbar added that the world knows Pakistan has indulged in ethnic cleansing of its own people. Pakistan’s consistent use of terrorism has been at the cost of development. People of Pakistan are paying the price of a malevolent government.