Will Not Succumb to Pakistan's Blackmail Tactics: India

United Nations: Giving point-by-point rebuttal to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's assertions about India in his Assembly speech, M.J. Akbar, India's Minister of State for External Affairs said on Wednesday that India will not hold a dialogue with a Pakistan that holds the gun of terrorism and glorifies terrorists.

"It was shocking that the leader of a nation can glorify a self-declared, self-advertised terrorist at such a forum. This is self incrimination by the Pakistan prime minister.",Akbar told reporters shortly after Sharif's speech.

Sharif hailed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani as the "latest symbol of the Kashmiri intifada (uprising), of a popular and peaceful freedom movement." He called him "the young leader murdered by Indian forces".

Wani is a "self-declared commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen," Akbar said. "This organisation is widely acknowledged as a terrorist group internationally."

Akbar dismissed Sharif's oration as "a speech full of threat, bluster and I am afraid I can describe it only as rising immaturity and complete disregard of facts."

"Confrontation should not be our destiny in South Asia, Pakistan wants peace with India," Sharif said.

"I have gone the extra mile to achieve this, repeatedly offering a dialogue to address all outstanding issues. But India has posed unacceptable preconditions to engage in a dialogue."

"We haven't seen the first mile," Akbar said. "Where is the question of the extra mile?"

Dismissing the possibility of talks for now, he said: "Pakistan wants a dialogue while it holds a gun in its hand, terrorists' gun. Talks and guns don't go together."

Akbar said India's position on talks has been consistent. "We have always been ready for a dialogue, but we will not succumb to blackmail tactics (from) the government in Islamabad that seems eager to use terrorists and terrorism."

"This indigenous uprising of the Kashmiris has been met, as usual, with brutal repression by India's occupation force of over half a million soldiers," Sharif said.

"Over a hundred Kashmiris have been killed."

Akbar's rejoinder was: "The world also knows that Pakistan has indulged in ethnic cleansing of its own people. Pakistan's consistent use of terrorism has been at the cost of development. People of Pakistan are paying the price of a malevolent government."

"The people of Balochistan have faced serious violence, even the use of air force to attack them, Akbar added.

Asked by a reporter how India saw this campaign, Akbar said, "Very simple response. Hope you heard the others' speeches (at the Assembly). Nobody has raised it."

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup too lashed out at Sharif's speech on Twitter saying Pakistan PM Sharif glorified Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani in UN's highest forum which shows continued attachment of Pakistan to terrorism.

In another tweet he went on to say that Pakistan is in complete denial of Uri terror attack that claimed 18 lives.

In a befitting reply to Pakistan, Eenam Gambhir, First Secretary of India's permanent mission to the UN, slammed Pakistan accusing it of committing war crimes.

"The worst violation of human rights is terrorism. When practiced as an instrument of state policy it is a war crime. What my country and our other neighbours are facing today is Pakistan's long-standing policy of sponsoring terrorism, the consequences of which have spread well beyond our region.", said Gambhir.

Continuing his intense lobbying efforts this week at the UN, Sharif in his speech called for international intervention in Kashmir saying: "The international community ignores the danger of rising tensions in South Asia, at its own peril."