“Tragically, the reality facing us is that Pakistan is the world’s largest producer and exporter of this evil. Pakistan’s political approaches are rooted in terrorist violence and its global engagement is defined by mainstreaming of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft,” she said.
The Indian official said that for India, the most important fundamental right was the right to life. (Image: Twitter/@UNESCO)
New Delhi has slammed Pakistan for its ‘juvenile propaganda’ over the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Ayodhya Land Dispute and the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, charging Islamabad with interfering in India’s internal affairs.
“Mr President, we take this chair to refute Pakistan’s juvenile propaganda to malign India through fabricated lies, full of deceit and deception. We condemn the unwarranted comments made by Pakistan on the judgment made by the Supreme Court of India. The judgment is about the rule of law, equal respect for all faiths, concepts that are alien to Pakistan and its ethos,” an Indian official said while exercising India’s ‘Right of Reply’ at the 40th session of UNESCO’s General Conference underway in Paris.
She said Pakistan’s lack of comprehension was not surprising given its pathological compulsion to comment on India’s internal affairs with the obvious intent of spreading hatred.
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Her remarks came after Pakistan Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood denounced the Indian Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya saying it was not in line with UNESCO’s values of religious freedom. “We are, therefore, dismayed to see that the highest court in India to virtually condone the destruction of centuries-old mosque sacred to Muslims. The international community should take note of this injustice,” he said.
In response, the Indian official said that for India, the most important fundamental right was the right to life. Globally the single largest threat to this right was from terrorism, she added. “Tragically, the reality facing us is that Pakistan is the world’s largest producer and exporter of this evil. Pakistan’s political approaches are rooted in terrorist violence and its global engagement is defined by mainstreaming of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft,” she said.
Slamming Pakistan for its rhetoric on Kashmir, the Indian official said, “The Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have always been ours and shall always be an integral part of India and this includes the territory that is currently under the illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan.”
Hitting out at Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, she asked where the perpetrators of 9/11 and 26/11 terror attacks were found, which country was home to 130 UN-designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the UN and which was the country where banned terror outfits openly conduct their activities.
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