'Peace Possible Only When Cross-Border Terrorism Stops,’ India Tells Pakistan at UNGA - Video

In its reply, India, on Saturday, called out Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for "making false accusations against India" during his address on Friday at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

"We want peace with all our neighbors, including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, however, remains conditional on a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute," PM Sharif said during his address at UNGA.

Sharif called India's decision in 2019 to repeal Article 370 of its constitution, which granted Jammu and Kashmir a degree of autonomy, an “illegal and unilateral” action, and said that changing the internationally recognized “disputed” status of Jammu and Kashmir reduces the scope for peace with the result that regional tensions had become inflamed.

Pakistan's prime minister accused India of trying to turn the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir union territory into a Hindu-majority territory, through allegedly illegal demographic changes.

"Millions of fake 'domicile certificates' have been issued to non-Kashmiris; Kashmiri land and properties are being seized; electoral districts have been gerrymandered; and more than 2.5Mln non-Kashmiri illegal voters have been fraudulently registered," Sharif complained.

Indian diplomat Mijito Vinito, the first secretary of India's mission to the UN, replied to Sharif's statements at the UNGA on Saturday, and said that instead of focusing on Kashmir, Pakistan should put an end to cross-border terrorism.

“It is regrettable that Pakistan's PM chose the platform of this assembly to make false accusations against India. He has done so to obfuscate misdeeds in his own country, and to justify actions against India,” Mijito Vinito said, exercising India's right of reply.

Vinito continued his rebuttal, saying "a state that claims it seeks peace with its neighbors would never sponsor cross-border terrorism, nor shelter those who were planning a horrific terrorist attack on Mumbai, only disclosing [the terrorist's] existence under pressure from the international community.”

The secretary also pointed out that false accusations made against India were not the only problem; human rights, minority rights, and common decencies also needed to be considered.

“The desire for peace, security, and progress in the Indian subcontinent will happen when cross-border terrorism ceases, when governments are honest with the international community and their own people, when minorities are not persecuted and, last but not least, when we recognize these realities before this Assembly," Vinito concluded.