Pakistan rips into Sushma’s speech, calls it ‘litany of lies’

Calls New Delhi out on false claims on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Hours after Sushma Swaraj fired a broadside at Pakistan in her address to the UN General Assembly on Monday, Islamabad, exercising its right of reply, denounced the Indian external affairs minister’s speech as a ‘litany of falsehoods’ and ‘travesty of facts and history’.

“We [Pakistan] reject all the baseless allegations made in that statement. Her [Sushma’s] statement is a litany of falsehoods about Pakistan and a travesty of facts and history,” stated the reply presented by the Pakistani delegation.

“It only reflects the deceit and hostility of her government towards Pakistan… [and] is designed principally to deflect global attention from the brutalities being perpetrated by India’s over half a million occupation forces against innocent and unarmed Kashmiri s,” it said.



Responding directly to Sushma’s assertion that Kashmir is an integral part of India, the Pakistani delegation said: “Jammu and Kashmir never was and can never be an integral part of India. It is a disputed territory, the final status of which has yet to be determined in accordance with several resolutions of the UN Security Council (UNSC).”

The statement pointed out that the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination was promised to them by UNSC and India and Pakistan. “For 70 years, India has prevented the Kashmiris, through force and fraud, from exercising this right.”

“The struggle of the Kashmiri people is legitimate … [but] their call for freedom has been met with characteristic Indian brutality. Over a hundred innocent Kashmiris have been killed… [and] hundreds more have been blinded.”

“This is the worst form of state terrorism, a war crime,” it said, adding that Pakistan demands a full and impartial investigation of these Indian atrocities.

The statement added that the attack on an Indian army base in Uri “has all the hallmarks of an operation designed to divert attention from India’s atrocities in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”

“India is utilising the Uri incident to blame Pakistan for the current Kashmiri uprising and divert attention from its brutal occupation. The international community is well aware that several such incidents have been staged in the past to serve India’s objectives.”



In response to Sushma’s accusation that Pakistan is exporting terrorism, the statement said: “Over the course of the last half century, India has sponsored and perpetrated terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours; creating terrorist groups; destabilising and blockading neighbours to do its strategic bidding and sponsoring subversion and terrorism in various parts of Pakistan.”

“Recently captured Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav has confessed to India’s support to such terrorist and subversive activities particularly in Balochistan and the tribal areas,” it pointed out. “India’s policy of interference in Pakistan, especially to destabilise Balochistan… is a blatant violation of the UN Charter.”

The statement advised India to address its own “vast internal problems and the dozen or so insurgencies going on there” instead of aiming to destabilise Pakistan.

It termed Sushma’s claim that India has imposed no preconditions to talks another falsehood. “India suspended talks more than a year ago, and has refused to resume, them despite repeated offers from Pakistan and advice from the international community.”

The statement also said the Indian government was ‘delusional’ if it believes it can isolate any country. “It is India itself, which because of its war crimes in Kashmir and elsewhere, and because of its warmongering, is likely to be isolated.”

Earlier, in her speech, Sushma called on Pakistan to ‘abandon its dream of Kashmir’ and ‘introspect on Balochistan’.

“Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so. Those accusing others of human rights violations would do well to introspect and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own country, including in Balochistan,” she said.

Without explicitly naming Pakistan, the Indian minister also said: “In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism. We must identify these nations and hold them to account.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2016.