EAM calls Pak ‘terror hub' at UN

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday delivered a scathing indictment of Pakistan at the UN General Assembly, describing the country as "an epicentre of global terrorism for decades" and warning that those who condone terror sponsors will find "it comes back to bite them.

- Shashank Mattoo

S Jaishankar

Speaking hours after Indian diplomats presented another rebuke to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's address to the UNGA on Friday, Jaishankar told the assembly that "for decades now, major international terrorist attacks are traced back to that one country" and condemned nations where "terror hubs operate on an industrial scale" and "terrorists are publicly glorified."

Without naming Pakistan, Jaishankar referenced April's Pahalgam attack as "the most recent example of cross border barbarism" where innocent tourists were murdered, declaring that "when nations openly declare terrorism a state policy" such actions "must be unequivocally condemned."

"India exercised its right to defend its people against terrorism and brought its organisers and perpetrators to justice," Jaishankar said, referring to Operation Sindoor launched in May. India's foreign minister also delivered a warning to countries that supported sponsors of terrorism by stating that such policies had a way of rebounding to harm those very same nations. He called for a relentless policy of restricting funding and condemning sponsorship of international terror.