TOI correspondent from Washington: India on Friday lampooned Pakistan’s claim that it had won the recent brief war with India, telling the United Nations that “If destroyed runways and burnt-out hangers look like victory…Pakistan is welcome to enjoy it.” New Delhi also asserted that it was the Pakistani military that “pleaded with us directly for a cessation to the fighting” and if Islamabad is sincere about wanting peace, it must “immediately shut down all terrorist camps and handover to us terrorists wanted in India.”In a sharply-worded riposte to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s “absurd theatrics “ that included pretensions of seeking peace and presenting the country as a bulwark of terrorism in his speech, India reminded the UN that Pakistan sheltered Osama bin Laden for a decade, even while pretending to partner in the war against terrorism. “A country long steeped in the tradition of deploying and exporting terrorism has no shame in advancing the most ludicrous narratives to that end,” India’s First Secretary Petal Gahlot said while exercising New Delhi’s right to reply to the Pakistan PMs speech. Gahlot also reminded the UN that “this is the very same Pakistan which, at the UN Security Council shielded ‘The Resistance Front’,” a Pakistani sponsored terror outfit that carried out the Pahalgam massacre where Hindus were identified by their religion and butchered. The carnage led to India’s retaliatory strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan. “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 organizers and perpetrators to justice,” Gahlot said. The Indian diplomat also asserted New Delhi’s “longstanding national position” that there is no room for any third party in mediating outstanding issues between India and Pakistan, rejecting Islamabad’s effort to draw the US and other countries into the dispute. After claims by US President Donald Trump that he brought about a truce between the two sides during the recent war and his tentative efforts to mediate, Washington has now reverted to its position that matters need to be resolved bilaterally. Earlier, Sharif pleaded in his speech that Pakistan’s “sacrifices” as a “bulwark against terrorism” must be respected and appreciated because “had these terrorists not been encountered by us, they would have been roaming in the streets of New York, London, and Far East,” unwittingly reminding the UN that Pakistan terrorists are indeed doing so. Aside from Ramzi Yousef, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Osama bin Laden, who were responsible for the two World Trade Center bombings in 1993 and 2001, and who sheltered in Pakistan, Faisal Shahzad, son of a Pakistani Air Vice Marshal, was convicted for the 2010 Times Square car bombing a few blocks from the UN. Pakistanis and Pakistani-origin terrorists also carried out massacres from San Bernardino, California, to London, to Mumbai, a record its patrons have glossed over. As is customary in recent years, India fielded a junior diplomat to lance Pakistan’s claims as the two countries resumed their war of words at the UN. Gahlot, a popular diplomat who is also an accomplished singer, lit into Pakistan in a brief retort that mocked Sharif reference to “Hindutva-based extremism” saying it is “ironic that a country which wallows in hate, bigotry and intolerance should preach to this Assembly on matters of faith.” Pakistan officially and constitutionally discriminates against minorities, including Muslim minorities such as Ahmadis. Gahlot also asserted that where terrorism is concerned, India is “making it clear that there will be no distinction between the terrorists and their sponsors. Both will be held accountable.” Nor will New Delhi allow terrorism to be practised under the cover of nuclear blackmail.