In a scathing attack on Pakistan, India has said that if there is an “unfinished agenda” at the UN, it is that of tackling the scourge of terrorism and the country, a globally-recognised epicenter of the menace, which harbours and trains terrorists and hails them as martyrs.

Exercising India’s right to reply on Monday, First Secretary in the country’s Permanent Mission to the UN Vidisha Maitra said: “Pakistan is a country which is globally recognised as the epicenter of terrorism, which by its own admission harbours and trains terrorists, and hails them as martyrs and consistently persecutes its ethnic and religious minorities”.

She was referring to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks in the country’s Parliament where he had termed former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as a “martyr”.

“We reject the malicious reference made to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India. If there is an item that is unfinished on the agenda of the UN, it is that of tackling the scourge of terrorism,” Maitra said.

As the UN member states marked 75 years of the United Nations in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir during his address to the high-level meeting on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the world organisation.

Qureshi said Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine were the UN’s “most glaring and long-standing disputes” and the people of Jammu and Kashmir still await the fulfillment of the commitment made to them by the UN to grant them their “right to self-determination.” With Pakistan yet again raising the Kashmir issue at a UN platform, Maitra said India had hoped that during this solemn commemoration of a shared global milestone, the General Assembly would be “spared another repetition of the baseless falsehoods that have now become a trademark of Pakistan’s interventions on such platforms”.

“However, for a nation that is bereft of milestones, one can only expect a stonewalled and stymied approach to reason, diplomacy and dialogue.

“What we heard today is the never-ending fabricated narrative presented by the Pakistani representative about the internal affairs of India,” she said.

Strongly rejecting the malicious reference made to Jammu and Kashmir, Maitra said Pakistan “will do well to turn its attention inwards to immediately addressing these pressing concerns instead of diverting attention from them by misusing the UN platforms.”