Pakistan sheltered Osama Bin Laden, says Sushma Swaraj at UN: Top quotes

New Delhi, Sep 29: Calling out Pakistan's "lie" that India is sabotaging the dialogue process, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Saturday asked world leaders how can talks can be pursued in the midst of "terrorist bloodshed" with a nation that "glorifies killers."

In a hard-hitting retort to Pakistan, Swaraj said India has made many efforts to have talks with Islamabad and the only reason they have stopped is because of Pakistan's behaviour.

Here are the top quotes from Sushma Swaraj speech at UNGA

• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today that the biggest challenges the world faces currently are climate change and terrorism.
• Pakistan's commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy.
• In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border. Our neighbour's expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity.
• The horrific tragedy of 9/11, and in Mumbai the catastrophe of 26/11 became the nightmares that shattered our dreams. The demon of terrorism now stalks the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but life-threatening everywhere.
• The most startling evidence of this duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 9/11 was given safe haven in Pakistan. America had declared Osama bin Laden it's most dangerous enemy, and launched an exhaustive, worldwide search to bring him to justice.
• But Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened. Pakistan's commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy. The killers of 9/11 met their fate; but the mastermind of 26/11 Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity.
• We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behavior.
• Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behavior, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers; it refuses to see the blood of innocents.
• Last year, Pakistan's representative, using right to reply, displayed some photographs as "proof" of "human rights violations" by India. The photographs turned out to be from another country. Similar false accusations have become part of its standard rhetoric.
• Each year, for last five years, India has been arguing from this podium that lists are not enough to check terrorists and their protectors. We need to bring them to accountability through international law.
• At the heart of Prime Minister Modi's transformative vision is a radical idea: that the uplift of any nation is best achieved through the all-round empowerment of women. All the schemes that I have just spoken about have welfare of women at their core.
• The United Nations must accept that it needs fundamental reform. Reform can't be cosmetic. We need change the institution's head and heart to make both compatible to contemporary reality. Reform must begin today; tomorrow could be too late.
• She advised that the United Nations must try and emulate the format of a family the nations must work together and keep every country's goals in perspective for the welfare of the world.
• One has to feel the pain of others to help them, she said.