NEW YORK: “The butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister of India,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told a UN briefing room, minutes after his Indian counterpart accused Pakistan of perpetuating terrorism and sheltering Osama bin Laden.
“I would like to remind Mr Jaishankar that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister (of India),” said the Pakistani foreign minister while responding to Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Jaishankar’s remarks.
“He (Narendra Modi) was banned from entering this country (the United States). These are the prime minister and foreign minister of RSS, which draws inspiration from Hitler’s SS,” he added.
Minutes before Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s briefing, Mr Jaishankar addressed the media at a UN stakeout site, repeating the allegations he made inside the UN Security Council on Wednesday, where he accused Pakistan of “hosting Osama bin Laden”.
He also responded to the remarks Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar made in Islamabad on Wednesday, calling India “the biggest perpetrator of terrorism”.
Mr Jaishankar said that Ms Khar’s remarks reminded him of the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Islamabad more than a decade ago when she reminded Pakistan that “if you have snakes in your backyard, you cannot expect them to bite only your neighbours”.
He claimed that Pakistan was “not great at listening to good advice … and now look what’s happening there. Today, it’s the epicentre of terrorism … and has its fingerprints over a lot of activities in the region and beyond”.
Urging Pakistan not to blame others, the Indian minister asked: “How long Pakistan intends to practice [terrorism] and hide it by taking that debate elsewhere? Please clean up your act. Please try to be a good neighbour.”
