Srinagar
Foreign Minister Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday told the UN General Assembly that Jammu and Kashmir dispute was the biggest hindrance to peace in the region, and the issue would not be resolved until the UN resolutions are not being implemented properly.
Referring to the first-ever report on Kashmir published by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that had called for an international probe into the numerous violations, he said it had exposed the face of rulers in india, Geo TV reported.
“We call for the implementation on its recommendations. India cannot continue with the bloody mayhem on the pretext of terrorism for long. We will welcome a commission on Kashmir; Geo TV quoted Qureshi as saying.
“We hope India will do it as well,” he added and warned that India should not test the patience of Islamabad by continuously violating the Line of Control (LoC).
The report further said that entire South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had become dysfunctional due to the attitude of India, Qureshi lamented, adding that New Delhi promoted “state-sponsored terrorism” in the Jammu and Kashmir in front of the international community.
The foreign minister said his country was ready to hold a dialogue with its eastside neighbour to curtail the arms race between the two nuclear states.
India was actively involved in the terrorist attacks in Pakistan by providing financial assistance to the extremists. “Kulbhushan Yadav, on the behest of the Indian government, planned terror attacks inside Pakistan,” Qureshi said while addressing the representatives of the United Nations’ 195 member states during the UNGA’s 73rd session.
Speaking in Urdu, Qureshi said Pakistan sought resolution of all the issues through a comprehensive and serious dialogue. “The [Narendra] Modi government wasted an opportunity for a dialogue for the third time because of their negative attitude,” he underlined, Geo TV reported.
While a report published by Indian Express said that in a reply to India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj accused neighboring Pakistan of harboring terrorists in an angry speech and rejected the notion that India is sabotaging peace talks with Pakistan, calling it “a complete lie.” Hours later, Pakistan shot back in its own speech, accusing India of financing terrorists and declaring that New Delhi “preferred politics over peace.”
In a retort to Pakistan’s accusation that India was sabotaging the dialogue process, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said talks cannot be pursued in the midst of “terrorist bloodshed” with a nation that “glorifies killers” and refuses to see the “blood of innocents”. Addressing the 73rd United Nations General Assembly debate, the foreign minister said despite India extending the olive branch for talks many times, it had to be stopped only because of the behavior of the neighbouring country.
Swaraj and Shah Mehmood Qureshi were slated to meet on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly session in New York. However, India called off the meeting last week citing the brutal killing of three policemen in J&K and Islamabad releasing postage stamps “glorifying” slain Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani, Indian Express reported.
