Key Points

"If destroyed runways and burnt-out hangers look like victory, as the Prime Minister claimed, Pakistan is welcome to enjoy it", Petal Gahlot, a first secretary at India's UN Mission said at the General Assembly, ridiculing Sharif's claim, "We have won the war".

Exercising the right of reply to his "absurd theatrics" during his speech in the morning, she ripped his claims about the war and the accusations he flung against India while declaring India's zero tolerance for terrorism.

"Where terrorism is concerned, we are making it clear that there will be no distinction between the terrorists and their sponsors", she said. "Both will be held accountable".

"Nor will we allow terrorism to be practised under the cover of Nuclear blackmail. India will never bow to such threats", she said.

She declared, "India's message to the world is clear; there must be zero-tolerance for terrorism".

She said that terrorism is "central" to Pakistan's foreign policy and the recent events again showed that Islamabad glorifies terrorism, and sponsors and protects terrorists.

"No degree of drama and no level of lies can conceal the facts", she said. Pakistan "again glorified terrorism that is so central to their foreign policy", she said.

Its role as a state sponsor of terrorism was again exposed when it shielded at the Security Council on April 25, the "Pakistani sponsored terror outfit", The Resistance Front (TRF), "from the responsibility of carrying out the barbaric massacre of tourists in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir", she said.

TRF itself had shamelessly claimed it carried out the attack killing 26 Hindu and Christian tourists at Pahalgam.

On ending the conflict between the two countries in May, Gahlot said, Sharif "advanced a bizarre account".

"The record on this matter is clear", she said, throwing a challenge to go look at the pictures of where the devastation happened.

"Till 9 May, Pakistan was threatening more attacks on India. But on 10 May, its military pleaded with us directly for a cessation to the fighting", she said.

"The intervening event was the destruction caused to multiple Pakistani airbases by Indian forces. The pictures of that damage are, of course, publicly accessible".

Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations Major General Kashif Abdullah, called his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, and asked for a ceasefire.

Defending Operation Sindoor that India launched to smash the dens of terror inside Pakistan, Gahlot said, "The truth is that as in the past, Pakistan is responsible for a terrorist attack on innocent civilians in India. We have exercised the right to defend our people against such actions and have brought the organisers and perpetrators to justice".

About Pakistan trying to deflect Operation Sindoor away from its terrorist links, Gahlot said, "A country long steeped in the tradition of deploying and exporting terrorism has no shame in advancing the most ludicrous narratives to that end".

"A picture speaks a thousand words, and we saw many pictures of terrorists slain in Bahawalpur and Muridke terror complexes by Indian forces during Operation Sindoor", she said.

She asked, "When senior Pakistani military and civilian officials publicly glorify and pay homage to such notorious terrorists, can there be any doubt about the proclivities of this regime"?

"Its ministers have just recently acknowledged that they have been operating terrorist camps for decades", Gahlot said. "It should come as no surprise that once again, this duplicity continues, this time at the level of its Prime Minister".

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif made the admission in an interview to Britain's Sky News channel in April.

Sharif dragging in US President in his speech and claiming he "facilitated" the ceasefire also came in for a rebuttal.

Gahlot said, "India and Pakistan have long agreed that any outstanding issue between them will be addressed bilaterally. There is no room for any third party in that regard. This is our longstanding national position".

- IANS