UNITED NATIONS: India has firmly told Pakistan to abandon its “dream” of obtaining Kashmir through terror attacks and asserted that it is an integral part of the country and will always remain so.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, while addressing the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, said, “It (Pakistan) persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to obtain the territory it covets.”

“My firm advice to Pakistan is: abandon this dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so,” she said in her speech. Countering Pakistan’s claims that India has imposed pre-conditions on talks, Swaraj said India got the terror attacks of Pathankot and Uri “in return” for taking the initiative to resolve issues with Islamabad not on the basis of conditions but on friendship. “We conveyed Eid greetings to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, wished success to his cricket team, extended good wishes for his health and well being. Did all this come with pre-conditions attached,” Swaraj said. “And what did we get in return? Pathankot, Bahadur Ali, and Uri. Bahadur Ali is a terrorist in our custody, whose confession is a living proof of Pakistan’s complicity in cross-border terror,” she added. Her speech came just over a week after 18 Indian soldiers were killed in a deadly attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists from across the border on an army base in Kashmir’s Uri.—PTI