Responding to Sushma Swaraj’s comments at the UN, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, accused India of sponsoring terrorism in various parts of her country. She termed India as the “mother of terrorism” in South Asia.
Exercising her right to reply after Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj hit out at Pakistan for creating terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Haqqani Network, Lodhi alleged that “in her vitriol, she (Swaraj) deliberately ignored the core issue” of Kashmir.
Earlier, Swaraj lashed out at Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in her UNGA speech.
“If the international community wishes to avoid a dangerous escalation between India and Pakistan, it must call on India to halt its provocations and aggressive actions. It must end the ceasefire violations along the Line of Control. It must halt its sponsorship of terrorist groups against Pakistan,” Lodhi said.
Lodhi said if the parties fail to resolve a dispute, the UN and the international community has not only the right but the obligation to intervene and help to resolve the dispute. “UN Security Council resolutions do not lapse with time. Or are ‘overtaken’, as the Indian foreign minister put it. Law has no expiry date. Morality has no sell-by date. India’s posture is that of the predator. It cannot escape its legal and moral obligation to abide by the resolutions of the Security Council,” she said.
“India has sponsored and perpetrated terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours; creating terror groups; destabilising and blockading neighbours to do its strategic bidding and sponsoring subversion, sabotage and terrorism in various parts of Pakistan. All this establishes that India is the mother of terrorism in South Asia,” she alleged.
She said the ‘largest democracy’ is also “the world’s largest hypocrisy” and it’s ruled by the “fascist” ideology. Lodhi alleged that Swaraj in her speech criticised Pakistan’s founding father MA Jinnah.
