United Nations, Sep 28 : India staged a walkout from the General Assembly as Pakistan sprayed venom against India while making the admission it is 'Terroristan'.

It also acknowledged on Saturday that it was the 'epicentre of global terrorism'.

In a call to the General Assembly for action against terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, 'India has confronted this challenge since independence, having a neighbour that is an epicentre of global terrorism'.

He did not name Pakistan, laying a trap for it and it walked right in.

A second secretary in its UN Mission, Muhammad Rashid, exercised the right of reply to Jaishankar's address and said it was 'an attempt to malign Pakistan'.

India came right back on to enmesh him in his own rhetoric.

'It is telling that a neighbour who was not named chose to nevertheless respond and admit their long-standing practice of cross border terrorism', Rentala Srinivas, a second secretary in India's UN Mission, said.

'Pakistan's reputation speaks for itself', he said taking the opening. 'Its fingerprints are so visible in terrorism across so many geographies, it's a menace, not only to its neighbours but to the entire world'.

'No arguments or untruths can ever whitewash the crimes of Terroristan', he added without naming Pakistan.

But Rashid came back, furiously admitting that Pakistan was Terroristan.

'Stan' is a generic, Perisan-derived word for "place of" or 'home of' and is found in the names of several countries and places.

Protesting the use of the word Terroristan, Rashid said India was distorting 'the very name of a country, a member of the United Nation'.

India walked out of the Assembly Hall as he spoke.

It is a common practice at the UN for countries to not exercise their right of reply if they were not directly named, even if they can be identified from innuendos or from subtle hints.

Reacting angrily in public and on the record amounts to an acknowledgement that they were the ones against whom an accusation or an unpleasant reference was being made.

In his carefully crafted speech, Jaishankar said, 'For decades now, major international terrorist attacks are traced back to that one country. UN's designated lists of terrorists are replete with its nationals'.

Dropping a hint, he added, 'The most recent example of cross-border barbarism was the murder of innocent tourists in Pahalgam in April this year'.

And in defence of Operation Sindoor ' without using the name ' he said, 'India exercised its right to defend its people against terrorism and brought its organizers and perpetrators to justice'.

'Because terrorism is a shared threat ... it is essential that there is much deeper international cooperation', he said.

'When nations openly declare terrorism as state policy, when terror hubs operate on an industrial scale, when terrorists are publicly glorified, then such actions must be unequivocally condemned', he said.

"Those who condone nations that sponsor terror will find that it comes back to bite them', he warned.

/IANS