A war of words broke out on Thursday between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, and while the Indian official described Pakistan as the "centre of terrorism", his Pakistani counterpart responded by describing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "butcher of Gujarat".
Political relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors are tense, especially because of their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which was split between the two countries during the division of the Indian subcontinent and the end of British colonialism in 1947.
New Delhi also accuses Islamabad of harboring militants who launched attacks on its soil, including the Bombay attacks in 2008 that left dozens dead.
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said - during the session - that Pakistan should "behave well and try to be a good neighbor," describing it as a "centre of terrorism."
He added that former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Pakistan, "If you leave snakes in your backyard, do not expect them to bite your neighbors only, as they will eventually bite the people who keep them in that garden."
Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari responded by saying that India had sought to confuse Muslims with terrorists in both countries.
Addressing Jaishankar, he added, "Osama bin Laden is dead (but) the butcher of Gujarat is alive and he is the prime minister of India."
Modi, India's Hindu nationalist leader, was the first president in Gujarat when sectarian violence erupted in 2002, killing more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
Modi has been accused of condoning violence, and until his election he was not allowed to enter the United States.
Bhutto Zardari said that his country had lost many lives due to terrorism, and that he himself was a victim, referring to his mother, Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who was assassinated in a suicide bombing in 2007.
"Why do we want our people to suffer? We don't want that at all," he added.
In response, the spokesperson for India's foreign minister considered the remarks "a new low even for Pakistan," adding, "Terrorism (made by Pakistan) should stop."
It is noteworthy that Pakistan accused India this week of supporting militants behind a bombing that took place in Lahore in 2021 near the house of an Islamic leader named Hafez Saeed, which caused the death of 4 people.
India and the United States accuse Saeed of involvement in the Bombay attacks, which killed 166 people, including foreigners.
Islamabad said it would provide the United Nations with evidence of these accusations, along with other accusations of sabotage against India, without providing further details.