India thunders at Pak over terror

​United Nations: India on Monday told the UN that its offer of unconditional friendship to Pakistan was met with a series of betrayals in the form of cross-border terror attacks.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, speaking in Hindi at the United Nations General Assembly, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan by inviting his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014, and also visiting Lahore last December in a goodwill gesture.

"But what did we get in return? Pathankot, Uri, Bahadur Ali," she said, referring to the January 2 terror attack on an air force base in Pathankot that left seven soldiers dead and the Uri attack of September 18 in which 18 soldiers died and the capture of Pakistani terrorist Bahadur Ali.

Sushma called on Pakistan to “abandon its dream” of snatching Jammu and Kashmir, saying the neighbour should look within at “egregious rights violations in Balochistan” instead of leveling baseless allegations against India.

Swaraj’s address marked the latest exchange in a war of words between the two sides. Sharif devoted most of his speech to the Kashmir issue and demanded a UN fact-finding mission into alleged rights violations.

She added, “But when confronted with such evidence, Pakistan remains in denial. It persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to snatch the territory it covets. My firm advice to Pakistan is: Abandon this dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so.”