Severity of attack linked to new Indian strategy of taking up PoK issues

India and Pakistan continued to wrangle at the U.N., as Pakistan exercised its right to reply to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s address, with an unbridled attack on India.

Accusing India of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, of “support and sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan”, with references to the Samjhauta blasts and the 2002 Gujarat riots, Pakistan’s reply marks a new low in statements made at the U.N. over Kashmir. Claiming that over 100,000 Kashmiris had been killed in what it called Indian “state terrorism”, and making an unsubstantiated reference to “6,000 unnamed mass graves”, Pakistan called on India to withdraw troops and allow for a plebiscite in Kashmir.

The reply came hours after Ms. Swaraj’s UNGA address where she rejected the four-point peace proposal made by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the U.N., saying that just “one-point” was necessary, and that was, for Pakistan to “give up terrorism”. “India’s insistence on limiting the talks to a one-point agenda proves that [India] is neither interested nor serious in engaging in a genuine dialogue,” the Pakistani reply read. Details