UNITED NATIONS - Pakistan presented three dossiers containing proofs of Indian hand in fanning terrorism on its territory to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday, after India rejected a four-point peace plan proposed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi had a special meeting with the UN general sectary in the afternoon and presented him the documents containing uncontestable proof of Indian funding to terrorists in Pakistan and provision of other help to the elements carrying out subversive activities, an official said.
It is expected that the UN chief will made the dossier part of his report and it would also be shared with permanent members of the UN Security Council, the official added.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz told the media the dossiers presented to the UN chief contain irrefutable evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces as well as Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan.
Before his departure Wednesday for London on his way back home, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told a news conference that he had planned on handing over the dossier to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi but that meeting did not take place. In those circumstances, he said, a copy of the dossier will be presented to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Earlier, in his speech to the General Assembly, the prime minister had proposed for India a 4-point initiative to defuse tension in South Asia that entailed renouncing the use or threat of use of force, de-militarisation of Kashmir, withdrawal from Siachen Glacier and formalising ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC).
“Wisdom dictates that our immediate neighbour refrains from fomenting instability in Pakistan,” he said. “The two countries should address and resolve the causes of tension and take all possible measures to avert further escalation.”
But India rejected the peace plan, saying that talks between the two states on terrorism that collapsed in August should be revived.
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday told the General Assembly that India remained open to dialogue, “but talks and terror cannot go together.”
“We don’t need four points, we need just one: Give up terrorism and let us sit down and talk,” she said. Swaraj said the talks between national security advisers on all issues related to terrorism should be held, as well as an early meeting of senior military officials to address the situation on the border.
“If the response is serious and credible, India is prepared to address all outstanding issues through a bilateral dialogue,” she said.
The initial Indian response to Pakistan peace proposal was even more bitter as India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup referred to Pakistan as a “prime sponsor of terrorism”. In a series of swift tweets, he asserted that “de-terrorising” Pakistan rather than de-militarising Kashmir was the answer for achieving peace.
Vikas, who is in New York, alleged Pakistan of using terror as a “legitimate instrument” of its statecraft. He said: “Pak PM gets foreign occupation right, occupier wrong. We urge early vacation of Pak-occupied Kashmir.”
Exercising the Right of Reply in the General Assembly late on Wednesday, a first secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN termed as “regrettable” that Pakistan was again choosing to “misuse” the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly session to “distort reality and portray a false picture of the challenges in our region”.
Extending an olive branch to India, PM Nawaz in his address to the General Assembly had said his country was the “primary victim” of terrorism.
The PM in his speech also said Muslims were suffering across the world and both Palestine and Kashmir were oppressed by foreign occupation.
He called for demilitarisation of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, and for both countries to respect a 2003 ceasefire on the de-facto frontier, where there had been an increase in cross-border firing lately.
“To demilitarise Kashmir is not the answer, to deterrorise Pakistan is,” India said on its external affairs ministry website. Referring to Sharif’s statement that his country was a major victim of terrorism, Swarup alleged that Pakistan was the prime sponsor of terrorism.
First Secretary Abhishek Singh retorted to Nawaz Sharif’s comments, saying: “In truth, it (Pakistan) is actually a victim of its own policies of breeding and sponsoring terrorists. The heart of the matter is a state that regards the use of terrorism as a legitimate instrument of statecraft. The world watches with concern as its consequences have spread beyond its immediate neighbourhood.”
Stating that Pakistan was seeking to mask its activities, as though an outcome of domestic discontent in Jammu & Kashmir carried no credibility with the world, Singh said. “All of us stand prepared to help, if only the creators of this monster wake up to the dangers of what they have done to themselves.”
On Pakistani prime minister’s reference to ceasefire violations and exchange of fire along the LoC and the working boundary, Singh said the world knew that the “primary reason for firing is to provide cover to terrorists crossing the border. It needs no imagination to figure out which side initiates this exchange”, he said.
Singh added it was not uncommon for states when confronted with serious challenges to shift responsibility on others. “That is the case with Pakistan and terrorism, reflecting the inability to recognise that this is a homegrown problem that has begun to bite the hand that fed it. We agree that terrorism has underlying causes — in this case, poverty of wisdom and ignorance of consequences,” he said.
Singh also pointed out that India’s strong reservations about the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor stemmed from the fact that it passed through Indian territory, “illegally occupied” by Pakistan for many years.
On Nawaz Sharif’s remarks that the dispute over Jammu & Kashmir remained unresolved and the dialogue had not progressed, Singh said: “This is because Pakistan has chosen to disregard its commitments, whether under the 1972 Shimla Agreement, or the 2004 Joint Declaration, or more recently the understanding between our two prime ministers at Ufa (Russia)”.
Singh asserted it was India on each occasion that extended the hand of friendship. “India remains open even today to engage with Pakistan on outstanding issues in an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence.”