EAM Jaishankar shuts down Pakistani journalist at UN Headquarters: 'A terrorist country is asking me that?'

United Nations, Sep 25 (IANS) 'A terrorist country is asking me that? Come on!"

With these words External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar shut down a Pakistani journalist who barged into a news conference here on Friday and shouted comments about India.

With an ironic smile framing those remarks, Jaishankar faced down the disrupter at the joint news conference by him and Liberia's Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti on the launch of the Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers.

When the reporter persisted in yelling, India's Permanent Representative P Harish told him, "You hear him loud and clear"!

On Thursday, an Indian media reporter had asked Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as he was walking by the entrance to the General Assembly, "Prime Minister, when will you stop harbouring terrorists"? and "When will you prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed"?

Unlike EAM Jaishankar who could give a withering answer, Sharif quickened his pace, looking away unable to reply.

In a video circulating on social media, Sharif was seen arriving at the UN headquarters, as reporter asked: “Prime Minister, when will you stop harbouring terrorists?” Sharif offered no response.

The issue was raised again when he left the UN premises. Reporter asked, “When will you prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed?” Sharif once again declined to answer, walking past the journalists without addressing the question.

Hafiz Saeed is the founder of the Pakistan-based proscribed terror group LeT and one of India’s most-wanted global terrorists. He remains a UN-listed global terrorist with a $10 million bounty placed on him by the United States government.

Earlier on Wednesday, India lashed out at Pakistan at the United Nations, telling Islamabad to address its struggling, bailout-dependent economy rather than harbour territorial ambitions or support cross-border terrorism.

At the UN Human Rights Council, Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi hit back at Pakistan’s attempts at diversion, saying aggressive posturing could not rescue its struggling economy.

"Pakistan would better serve its people by focusing on development, rather than by coveting territory of others or exporting terror, because neither these nor its theatrics in the Council would help repay the loans its economy survives on,” Tyagi remarked.

Tyagi also laid bare Islamabad’s domestic record, citing the violent suppression of civilians in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where mass protests have been met with lethal force while authorities restricted access to essential food, fuel and medicine

"This Council was told last Friday of scores of civilians killed since June in the territory Pakistan occupies, of students arrested in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and of food and medicine held back. When those accounts were given, Pakistan's answer was a point of order. If any delegation in this room meets every objective criterion for this Council's scrutiny, it is Pakistan,” he said, highlighting Pakistan’s glaring governance failures.

--IANS

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