Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India has said it will treat Pakistan’s reference to Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Israel-Gaza conflict with the “contempt it deserves,” and will not dignify it with a response.
The remarks by India’s Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN, Ambassador R Ravindra, came on Tuesday after Pakistan’s UN envoy Munir Akram made reference to Kashmir at the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, the media reported.
“Before I end, there was a remark of habitual nature by one delegation referring to Union Territories that are integral and inalienable parts of my country,” Ravindra said.
“I would treat these remarks with contempt they deserve and not dignify them with a response in the interest of time,” he said.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Security Council meeting that all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable, whether they are carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terror outfit, or by Hamas, targeting people in Mumbai or Kibbutz Beeri.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating itself. No member of this Council, no nation in this entire body could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” he said.
“As this Council and the UN General Assembly have repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable. They’re unlawful and unjustifiable, whether they target people in Nairobi or Bali… Istanbul or Mumbai, in New York or Kibbutz Be’eri,” Blinken told the UN Security Council.
“They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether they’re carried out by ISIS, by Boko Haram, by Al Shabaab, by Lashkar-e-Taiba, or by Hamas. They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether victims are targeted for their faith, their ethnicity, their nationality, or any other reason.”
Blinken stressed that the Security Council has a responsibility to denounce member states that arm, fund, and train Hamas or “any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts.”
His remarks appeared to make a reference to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.