New Delhi:
India Thursday hit out at Pakistan for falsely claiming that it made a statement at a recent UN Security Council meeting on terrorism, and asserted UN body’s chair Indonesia had informally told New Delhi that non-member were not allowed to speak at the discussion. India has also formally written to the United Nations about Pakistan’s false claim.
It has exposed Pakistan’s litany of lies peddled at the UN after Islamabad’s UN envoy claimed to have given a statement at the Security Council meeting that was not open to non-members of the 15-nation UN body.
A photograph of the meeting tweeted by the German Mission to the UN showed only envoys of the 15 Security Council members participating in the meeting. Pakistan is not a member of the Council. Asked about the issue at an online media briefing, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that on August 24, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN had claimed that Islamabad made a statement during the UNSC discussions held on Monday on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
The briefings and discussions at this UNSC meeting were confined to members only, Srivastava said. “We had sought clarifications from the Indonesian chair who informally confirmed to us that there was no scope for any non-member to speak in this discussion,” he said.
To a separate question on whether any meeting will be held with Pakistan to build a bridge as part of Kartarpur infrastructure, he said the movement across the land border was suspended due to COVID-19 and due to the monsoon season “we are also being cautious about the safety of our pilgrims due to the lack of infrastructure on the Pakistani side”. “We are in touch with Pakistani authorities on this,” the MEA spokesperson said. Responding to queries on the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, Srivastava said, “We continue to take up this matter with Pakistani authorities”. India had last week pressed for having an Indian lawyer to represent Jadhav in a Pakistani court when it takes up his review petition against his death sentence.
Jadhav (55), a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017.
