NEW DELHI: Hours after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raised the issue of Kashmir at the UN General Assembly and praised hero Burhan Wani who was killed in an encounter with security forces in held Kashmir on July 8, India on Thursday hit back and called Pakistan a “terrorist state”.

Pakistan hosts the “Ivy League of terrorism” and carries out “war crimes” against Indians through its “long-standing policy of sponsoring terrorism”, an Indian official to the UN tweeted.

Meanwhile, security forces in Maharashtra went on high alert on Thursday after reports of sighting of suspicious men near a naval base in Uran, and suspicious activities in nearby Karanja.

A defence ministry spokesperson said the navy was in a state of high alert in Mumbai and adjoining areas after suspicious activities were reported by some schoolchildren in Karanja.

“The navy is in a state of high alert and suffice to say that action is being taken as per the standard operating protocols,” he said.

Sources said senior Navi Mumbai police officials, including Commissioner of Police Hemant Nagrale and Joint Commissioner Mad­hukar Pandey, were probing the reports. Anti-terror measures have been stepped up across Navi Mumbai and information is being relayed to the Mumbai and Thane police, reports said.

In another sign of bitterness in ties between the two countries, Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit was not allowed to attend a function at a school in New Delhi, a Pakistani news channel reported.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016