India, at the UN: Pakistan shelters terrorists

UNITED NATIONS – India's Foreign Minister accused neighboring Pakistan of harboring terrorists in a heated speech Saturday at the UN General Assembly and rejected the idea that India is sabotaging peace negotiations with the United Nations. Pakistan. his own speech, accusing India of financing terrorists and declaring that New Delhi "preferred politics to peace".

Sushma Swaraj, from India, pointed out that Osama Bin Laden was living quietly in Pakistan before being found and killed by a team of the US Navy SEALs, and said that the brain from the Mumbai attack in 2008 the streets of Pakistan with impunity ". Pakistan said that there was not enough evidence to stop it.

"In our case, terrorism is high not in distant lands, but across our border to the west," Swaraj said. "Our neighbor's expertise is not limited to spawning areas of terrorism, but is also an expert in the attempt to mask malevolence by verbal duplicity."

Swaraj and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the US General Assembly this week. India only called the day after its announcement, following the assassination of an Indian border guard in the disputed Kashmir region.

The two South Asian countries, neighbors still uncomfortable, find themselves in particularly tense conditions in this region to a "line of control" that crosses a rugged mountain range.

The announcement of the planned meeting was seen as an encouraging sign for the resumption of stalled negotiations between nuclear-armed neighbors. New Delhi had agreed to hold this meeting in response to a letter from the newly elected Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who wrote to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, stressing the need for a positive change, a desire Mutual Peace and Terrorism.

"We accepted the proposal," said Swaraj. "But a few hours after our acceptance, it appeared that terrorists had killed one of our jawans. Does this indicate a desire for dialogue?

Qureshi said it was the third time that the current Indian administration had canceled talks, "each time on fragile bases".

In his speech, he declared that "Pakistan continues to face terrorism financed, facilitated and orchestrated by our eastern neighbor". He spoke of extremist attacks in his home country, including one at a military school in Peshawar, northwest in 2014. killed more than 150 children, who he said were perpetrated by "terrorists backed by # 39; India. "

In the afternoon, Qureshi's speech sparked a strong response from India who exercised its right of reply at the end of the meeting and accused Pakistan of broadcasting fake allegations and false facts. an instrument of state policy. "

Since the independence of Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars against Kashmir, divided between the two countries but sought by each in its entirety.

"The unresolved dispute over Jammu and Kashmir is hindering the achievement of the goal of a lasting peace between the two countries," Qureshi said. "For more than 70 years, he has remained on the agenda of the US Security Council and a stain on the conscience of humanity."

He welcomed the publication of a report at the beginning of the year by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who mentioned "chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces" in Kashmir. The report was written without visiting the region, as both parties refused to grant unconditional access to the investigators. India, at the time, rejected it as a selective compilation of largely unverified information.

The United States has had a peacekeeping mission in the region since 1949, making it one of the oldest peacekeeping operations in the world. He is currently one of the smallest, with about 120 men last month.

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Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press reporter

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