At UN, Sharif talks of 'Intifada' in J&K, India says Pak 'in complete denial'

WASHINGTON: “Peace between India and Pakistan cannot be finally achieved without resolution of the Kashmir dispute,“ Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, going against the broad principle of nations remaining engaged despite contentious and historical territorial disputes.
Sharif also upped the pitch on events in Jammu and Kashmir by describing the slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani as a “young leader“ who had emerged as a symbol of latest Kashmiri “Intifada“ before he was “murdered“ by Indian forces, omitting mention of the young man's association with a banned terror outfit.He called for an independent inquiry into the “extra-judicial killings by India“ in Kashmir.
India's response was sharp and swift. MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted that Pakistan was “in complete denial“ on the Uri terror attack. He added, “Sharif glorifies Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani in UN's highest forum. Shows continued Pak attachment to terrorism.“
On Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's statement that India posed “unacceptable conditions to dialogue“, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “India's only condition is an end to terrorism. This not acceptable?“
Despite several Pakistan-hosted and radical Islam-inspired terrorists striking New York City only miles from where he spoke, not to speak of multiple attacks on India, Sharif claimed that Pakistan had been the principal victim of terrorism, including that “supported, sponsored and financed from abroad“.
“We will not allow externally sponsored terrorism and threats of destabilisation to cause turbulence in Pakistan,“ said the prime minster of a country that has been wracked for years by sectarian violence unleashed by its many home-grown terrorist outfits.
The self-gratifying speech was heard in grim silence by a General Assembly all too aware of the facts, but Sharif was talking mainly to an audience back home where he is now locked in confrontation with a military strongman, who is seen as the de facto ruler of the country.
Notwithstanding Pakistan's constitutional disenfranchisement of minorities, its serial killing of Shias, Hazaras, and Baloch, and its well chronicled history of genocide in Bangladesh (then East Paksitan), Sharif claimed that “in many countries the ghost of intolerance has revived xenophobia and Islamophobia“.