By Agencies
NEW DELHI: India on Friday came down heavily on Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for launching a personal attack on PM Narendra Modi, terming it a ‘new low’ even for that country.
The latest exchange between the neighbouring rivals happened on the sidelines of an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York across Wednesday and Thursday.
Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar had told Pakistan to “clean up your act and try to be (a) good neighbour”, while terming the country the “epicentre of terrorism”.
“Hillary Clinton, during her visit to Pakistan, said that if you keep snakes in your backyard you can’t expect them to bite only your neighbors, eventually they will bite the people who keep them in the backyard,” he had observed.
In response, Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said India was seeking to conflate Muslims and terrorists in both countries.
He told Jaishankar that “Osama bin Laden is dead, (but) the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the prime minister of India”.
Bhutto Zardari went on to say that his country had lost far more lives to terrorism and that he himself was a victim, referring to his mother Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007.
“Why would we want our own people to suffer? We absolutely do not,” he stated.
Responding to the exchange, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said it was a “new low even for Pakistan”, while quipping that “‘Made in Pakistan’ terrorism had to stop”.
Bagchi said the Pakistan foreign minister’s “frustration” would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their “state policy”.
“Pakistan is a country that glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and shelters terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim. No other country can boast of having 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities,” Bagchi asserted.
NEW DELHI: India on Friday came down heavily on Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for launching a personal attack on PM Narendra Modi, terming it a ‘new low’ even for that country.
The latest exchange between the neighbouring rivals happened on the sidelines of an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York across Wednesday and Thursday.
Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar had told Pakistan to “clean up your act and try to be (a) good neighbour”, while terming the country the “epicentre of terrorism”.
“Hillary Clinton, during her visit to Pakistan, said that if you keep snakes in your backyard you can’t expect them to bite only your neighbors, eventually they will bite the people who keep them in the backyard,” he had observed.
In response, Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said India was seeking to conflate Muslims and terrorists in both countries.
He told Jaishankar that “Osama bin Laden is dead, (but) the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the prime minister of India”.
Bhutto Zardari went on to say that his country had lost far more lives to terrorism and that he himself was a victim, referring to his mother Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007.
“Why would we want our own people to suffer? We absolutely do not,” he stated.
Responding to the exchange, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said it was a “new low even for Pakistan”, while quipping that “‘Made in Pakistan’ terrorism had to stop”.
Bagchi said the Pakistan foreign minister’s “frustration” would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their “state policy”.
“Pakistan is a country that glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and shelters terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim. No other country can boast of having 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities,” Bagchi asserted.
