India lambasts Pakistan at UN for supporting terrorism

India on Saturday lambasted Pakistan for extending continued support to terrorism on Indian soil and blamed Islamabad for sabotaging the talks process.

In her address to the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also urged the UN to adopt the India-initiated Comprehensive Convention on International terrorismn (CCIT) at the earliest so that this global scourge can be defined in definite terms as Pakistan calls terrorists freedom fighters.

"In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border," Sushma Swaraj said

"Our neighbour's expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity," she said.

Sushma Swaraj said that the charge that India has sabotaged the talks process is a lie

"We believe that talks are only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes," she said.

"Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behaviour."

Sushma Swaraj said that those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behaviour, not of human rights.

"Pakistan glorifies killers; it refuses to see the blood of innocents," she said in an acerbic attack.

She also urged the UN for an early adoption of the CCIT that was introduced by India to the world body in 1996.

"Till today, that draft has remained a draft, because we cannot agree on a common language," Sushma Swaraj said.

"On the one hand, we want to fight terrorism; on the other, we cannot define it while in Pakistan terrorists are called freedom fighters," she added.

--IANS

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