India calls Pakistan ‘Terroristan’ at UN, says polluter paying price

NEW DELHI: In a stinging reply to Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s fulminations against India at the UN, India described its western neighbour as “terroristan” which is home to a flourishing industry producing and exporting global terrorism.
Exercising its right of reply, India emphasised that Pakistan had become a land of “pure terror” synonymous with terrorism rather than being the “land of the pure” as its literal meaning suggests.
“Terroristan is, in fact, a territory whose contribution to the globalisation of terror is unparalleled,” said Eenam Gambhir, first secretary with India’s permanent mission to the UN, as she read out India’s response. She had been fielded last year as well when she said the “ivy league of terrorism” was located in Pakistan.
Pointing out that Pakistan is facing the blowback of its actions, Gambhir said, “The polluter, in this case, is paying the price.”
India was forced to exercise its right to reply after Abbasi yet again raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the UN and urged it to appoint a special envoy to Kashmir, claiming that India is violating the ceasefire agreement.
Gambhir said Pakistan’s current state can be gauged from the fact that Hafiz Saeed, a leader of the UN-designated terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, was now sought to be legitimised as the leader of a political party. The Indian official said Pakistan is a country whose counter-terrorism policy was to “mainstream and upstream” terrorists by either providing safe haven to global terror leaders in its military towns, or protecting them with political careers.
“None of this can justify Pakistan’s avaricious efforts to covet the territories of its neighbours. In so far as India is concerned, Pakistan must understand that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is and will always remain an integral part of India. However much it scales up cross-border terrorism, it will never succeed in undermining India’s territorial integrity,” said Gambhir.
Brushing aside Pakistan’s “gumption” to play the victim despite having sheltered 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, Gambhir said by now all of Pakistan’s neighbours were painfully familiar with these tactics of creating a narrative based on distortion, deception, and deceit. “This august assembly and the world beyond know that efforts at creating alternative facts do not change reality,” she said.
In his speech, Abbasi had also claimed that there were no Taliban safe havens in Pakistan. “Having suffered and sacrificed so much due to our role in the global counter-terrorism campaign, it is especially galling for Pakistan to be blamed for the military or political stalemate in Afghanistan,” Abbasi had said.
Attacking Pakistan, Gambhir said having diverted billions of dollars in international military and development aid towards creating a “dangerous infrastructure of terror” in its territory, Pakistan was now speaking of the high cost of its terror industry.
“Even as terrorists thrive in Pakistan and roam its streets with impunity, we have heard it lecture about the protection of human rights in India. The world does not need lessons on democracy and human rights from a country whose own situation is charitably described as a failed state,” Gambhir said.