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Pakistan indulging in nuclear blackmail: Vajpayee

Devidas Gupta in United Nations

Accusing Islamabad of indulging in 'nuclear blackmail' and using terror as an instrument of state policy against India, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday virtually charged the international coalition with condoning Pakistan-directed killings of innocents in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of 'self-determination'.

He also ignored Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's suggestions in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday for resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue and for de-escalation on the border.

Addressing the UNGA session, he utilised the opportunity to hit back at Musharraf for raking up the Gujarat violence, saying the charge of Muslims being the target of 'Hindu extremists' was a 'patently false and self-serving claim'.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the Pakistan leader's speech, the prime minister debunked Musharraf's criticism of assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Those who had to 'adjust' voting and counting procedures to win a referendum and achieved constitutional authority by the simple expedient of writing their own Constitution are ill-placed to lecture others on freedom and democracy," he told delegates attending the world body's 57th session.

Describing as an 'extraordinary claim' by Musharraf that the brutal murder of innocent civilians in J&K was actually a 'freedom struggle' and that the forthcoming elections were a farce, Vajpayee said it required an effort of 'logical acrobatics' to believe that carnage of innocents is an instrument of freedom and elections are a symbol of repression and deception.

Recalling that the international community had taken some collective decisions in the global effort to combat terrorism and to choke off its lifelines, Vajpayee asked the UN Counter Terrorism Committee to enforce compliance of Security Council resolution 1373 'by states known to be sponsoring, sheltering, funding, arming and training terrorists'.

Replying to Musharraf's charge that South Asia is hostage to one accident, one act of terrorism and one strategic miscalculation by India, the prime minister said, "In our South Asian region, nuclear blackmail has emerged over the last few months as a new arrow in the quiver of state-sponsored terrorism."

"Dark threats were held out that actions by India to stamp out cross-border terrorism could provoke a nuclear war. To succumb to such blatant nuclear terrorism would mean forgetting the bitter lessons of the September 11 tragedy," he said. "No one in our country wants a war-conventional or otherwise. Nor are we seeking any territory."

"But," Vajpayee said, "absolutely everyone in India wanted an end to cross-border terrorism, which has claimed thousands of innocent lives and denied entire generations their right to a peaceful existence with normal economic and social activity."

"We are determined to end it with all the means at our command. Let there be no doubt about it in any quarter," he asserted.

Also See:
Anti-Union Carbide protests to greet Vajpayee
My attack on India shows Pak's desperation: Musharraf
Complete Coverage: Vajpayee's US Visit

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