Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday hit out at Pakistan at the UN General Assembly, saying that despite a change in government, the neighbouring country was fomenting terrorism and even glorifying it.

Debunking Pakistani assertions that India was sabotaging peace talks, she said New Delhi believed “talks are the only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes.

Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of Pakistan’s behaviour”.

EAM @SushmaSwaraj:Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behavior, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers; it refuses to see the blood of innocents. pic.twitter.com/508EjveHxR

— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) September 29, 2018

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. (Photo | Twitter)

Addressing the 73rd session of the UNGA, 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.”

Swaraj said climate change and terrorism were the two biggest existential threats to the world. “To save the world from the adverse effects of climate change, developed nations must lift the deprived with financial and technical resources,” she said.

On the second challenge, Swaraj said, “The demon of terrorism now stalks the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but life threatening everywhere.”The foreign minister noted that in India’s case, “terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border to the west”, pointing a finger at Pakistan.

Explaining how Islamabad betrayed even Washington, Swaraj said, “Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 9/11, was given safe haven in Pakistan, a country that claimed to be America’s friend and ally.”

She said even after Osama was taken out by US special forces, Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened.

“Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy. The killers of 9/11 met their fate; but the mastermind of 26/11 Haiiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity,” she said.Swaraj also slammed Pakistan for casually accusing India of human rights violations. “Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist?”

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