Pakistan wasting time if it raises Kashmir issue at UN General Assembly: India's envoy to UN

Syed Akbaruddin, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, also said New Delhi's won't sit idle till Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar is brought to book.

IndiaToday.in  | Edited by Ganesh Kumar Radha Udayakumar
New Delhi, September 17, 2017 | UPDATED 12:22 IST

Highlights

  • 1
    The UNGA's 72nd session to begin next week
  • 2
    EAM Swaraj and Pakistan's Khawaja Asif to come face-to-face on sidelines
  • 3
    India's priorities for this UNGA include counterterrorism, migration, and climate change

Pakistan would be wasting its time if it tried to bring up Kashmir at next week's United Nations General Assembly session (UNGA), since it hasn't been discussed formally by the world body for 40 years, India's permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin said today.

Akbaruddin also reiterated that Masood Azhar was a criminal, and said New Delhi's won't sit idle till the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader is brought to book. India's efforts to convince the UN to designate the Pathankot terror attack mastermind as a global terrorist have been repeatedly thwarted by China, Pakistan's 'all-weather' ally.

Sushma Swaraj and Khawaja Asif, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, are all set to "come face-to-face" next week on the sidelines of the UNGA's 72nd session, ANI reported.

The session begins in New York on Tuesday.

Swaraj and Asif "expected to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit and the SAARC group meetings," the news agency said.

Syed Akbaruddin has listed five major issues Sushma Swaraj will focus on during the upcoming UNGA session: UN reform, counter-terrorism, migration, climate change, and peacekeeping.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the highlight of Swaraj's trip to New York would be her speech at the UNGA.

In the speech she gave last year, Swaraj hit back at former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who'd accused India of perpetrating human rights violations in Kashmir.

Swaraj pointed to Pakistan's activity in Balochistan province. "I can only say that those accusing others of human rights violations would do well to introspect and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own country, including in Balochistan. The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of state oppression," she said.