Pakistan using international aid to finance terror: India

Upping the ante against Pakistan, India has said it is a “terrorist state”, which for years with complete impunity has been using billions of dollars from international aid to train, finance and support terror groups as militant proxies.

Describing Pakistan as the “true epicentre” of global terror, India added that Islamabad’s trust in the methods of terror are so “deep” that it does not hesitate in using them on its own people in Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas.

In its Right of Reply in response to a statement by Pakistan at the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, India said, “the latest terrorist attack in Uri, where 18 Indian soldiers lost their lives and over 20 injured, only underlines that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active.” India also asserted that it awaits “credible action” by Pakistan to bring all those involved in the 2008 Mumbai and the Pathankot attacks to justice. 

The message that Kashmir is an integral part of India should be “loud and clear”, India told Pakistan on Tuesday, calling it a “dysfunctional state” that commits atrocities on its own people and preaches about tolerance, democracy and human rights. 

Responding to Pakistan’s Right of Reply (RoR), India also asked Pakistan if it can clarify how terror safe havens continue to flourish on its soil despite getting billions of dollars in anti-terrorism aid.

Pakistan’s envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, exercising the RoR to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s address to the UN General Assembly here on Monday, earlier said Pakistan rejects “all the baseless allegations” made by her and asserted that Kashmir never was and can never be an integral part of India. 

She called Kashmir a “disputed territory, the final status of which has yet to be determined in accordance with several resolutions of the UN Security Council”.

First Secretary in the Indian Mission to the UN Eenam Gambhir, in India’s Right of Reply to Lodhi’s remarks, said it appears that the Pakistani envoy “did not hear clearly what our Minister of External Affairs stated during her address earlier today”. 

Quoting Swaraj that J&K is an integral part of India, and will always continue to do so, he said, “we hope that the message is loud and clear”.