India again demands Pak to take credible, verifiable action against terrorism

United Nations: India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti on Monday said that Pakistan has to take credible and verifiable actions to ensure that any territory under its control is not used for any terrorist activities.

While replying to the reporter's question about the relations between the two neighbours, Tirumurti said: "I just wanted to say very clearly that India desires, normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan."

"Difference between the two countries should be resolved in an atmosphere, which is free of terror, hostility and violence, and, therefore, right now the onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere, including by taking credible and verifiable action not to allow any territory under their control to be used for cross-border terrorism against India," he said.

"Pakistan must prove its consistency between its words and its actions," he added.

After leading the Security Council for the first time on Monday as its president, Tirumurti faced a volley of questions from the international press corps at the UN representing media from around the world on India's positions on a range of issues from Kashmir to the protection of journalists.

However, when asked about the abrogation of Kashmir's special constitutional status in 2019, he declared that it was the "sole prerogative" of India's parliament and dismissed any challenges regarding the same.

Jammu and Kashmir is an integral, inalienable part of India. If anything needs to be changed, it is the vacation of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," Tirumurti said.

"These changes are within our Constitution, and these changes are entirely the prerogative of the Parliament of India. In fact, even the members of the Security Council, when this was brought up, I think, almost all of them agreed that this issue was not for the Council to discuss," he added.

When asked about the situation in Afghanistan, Tirumurti said that a resurgence of terrorism there will affect India and it should be prevented.

"Ties with international terrorism must be cut," he said. "We cannot have terrorist camps once again moving to Afghanistan and this will have a direct impact on India."

He also called for international support for "accelerated" dialogue on the future governance of Afghanistan and said that the hope was that "there will be no military solution."

"Any government that comes to power in Afghanistan has to be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the people. So, consequently, we cannot have the unilateral imposition of will, by any party," he said.

"It is important for us as the Security Council to ensure that we jointly support Afghanistan, and bringing a democratic and stable society, which will respect women and minorities," he added.

In addition, Tirumurti also declared that India was "deeply concerned about the developments in Myanmar" and called for putting the neighbour back on the road to democracy.

As Myanmar shares a 1,700-kilometre border with India, "Myanmar is extremely important for us and we have a direct stake in the situation in Myanmar," he said.

Outlining India's position, he said, "We have condemned the use of violence in Myanmar. We will urge maximum restraint. We believe that there can be no falling back on the path to democracy in Myanmar, and have called for upholding the rule of law, and taking forward the democratic process in which we have actually invested, and we have called for the release of detained leaders."

Tirumurti also denied that India was refusing to accept refugees from Myanmar and said that thousands had found refuge in India.

"It's important to understand that we have four states of India, which are neighbouring Myanmar, and in some of them ethnicities are the same," he said citing the example of Mizoram whose ethnicity is similar to that of the Chins across the border.

Meanwhile, when asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be attending in person the UN High-Level meeting of the General Assembly next month, Tirumurti said that India was waiting to see how the meeting would shape up given the threat from the Covid-19 Delta variant.

"We still don't know how the contours of how the participation will shape up (for the meeting), to be very frank, because we are still looking at the Delta variants and others which are coming in," he said.