Pakistan occupier, must vacate PoK: India

New Delhi: Bluntly calling Pakistan a “prime sponsor of terrorism”, India on Thursday strongly hit back at Islamabad, asserting that de-militarising Kashmir was not the answer for achieving peace, but “de-terrorising” Pakistan is as it uses terror as a “legitimate instrument” of statecraft.

Urging Islamabad for “early vacation” of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India said Pakistan was actually a victim of its own policies of breeding and sponsoring terrorists and it was a state that regarded the use of terrorism as a legitimate instrument of statecraft.

New Delhi’s unequivocal response came shortly after Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif raised the Kashmir issue in his address to the UN General Assembly, terming its non-resolution as a failure of the world body, and proposed a four-point “peace initiative” with India which included the demilitarisation of Kashmir. Mr Sharif also said Pakistan was the “primary victim” of terrorism.

“In truth, it (Pakistan) is actually a victim of its own policies of breeding and sponsoring terrorists. The heart of the matter is a state that regards the use of terrorism as a legitimate instrument of statecraft... The world watches with concern as its consequences have spread bey-ond its immediate neighbourhood,” India’s first secretary at its UN permanent mission in New York Abhishek Singh said in a sharp retort, exercising India’s right of reply in the general debate during the 70th UNGA session.

Separately, MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a series of tweets: “To de-militarise Kashmir is not the answer, to de-terrorise Pakistan is... Pakistan is not primary victim of terrorism, but of its own policies. It is in fact the prime sponsor of terrorism.” Mr Swarup further added that Pakistan’s “instability arises from its breeding of terrorists. Blaming neighbours is not a solution.”