India has hit back at Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s reference to Jammu and Kashmir at the UN General Assembly. In reply to his speech, India said that a country run by the military with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade, and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy. Addressing a session at UNGA, Indian diplomat Bhavika Mangalanandan said, as the world knows, Pakistan has long employed cross-border terrorism as a weapon against its neighbours. It has attacked the Indian Parliament, the Indian financial capital Mumbai, market places, and pilgrimage routes. The list is long. For such a country to speak about violence anywhere is hypocrisy at its worst.

She said Pakistan has continuously used terrorism to disrupt elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which is an inalienable and integral part of India. Pakistan should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will inevitably invite consequences. She further said it is ridiculous that a nation that committed genocide in 1971 and that persecutes its minorities relentlessly even now dare speak about intolerance and phobias. The world can see for itself what Pakistan really is. India was exercising its right of reply in the UN General Assembly on Friday in response to Shehbaz Sharif raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his address at the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.