Exercising the right of reply to the statements made by Pakistan at the 45ths session of Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, the Indian representative said, “It has become habitual for Pakistan to malign my country with false and fabricated narratives for its self-serving malicious purposes. Neither India nor others deserve this unsolicited lecture on human rights from a country that has consistently persecuted its ethnic and religious minorities, is an epicenter of terrorism, has the distinction of providing pensions to individuals on the UN Sanctions list, and has a Prime Minister who proudly admits training tens of thousands of terrorists to fight in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Exposing Pakistan for abusing various HRC mechanisms and platforms for raising issues, which relate to the internal affairs of India, The Indian statement said that it is an attempt to “distract the attention of the international community from serious human rights violations committed by it against its own people, including in Indian territories occupied by it”.
India also rejected the reference made by the Organisation of Islamic Council (OIC) to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India. “The OIC has no locus standi to comment on internal affairs of India. The OIC has allowed itself to be misused by Pakistan to subverse its own Agenda. It’s for the members of the OIC to decide if it is in their interests to allow Pakistan to do so,” said the Indian representative.
Pakistan is under severe pressure from international organization to act upon the menace of money laundering to stop terror financing. “Its not surprising that other relevant multilateral institutions have been raising serious concerns on its failure to stop terror financing and lack of effective actions against all terror entities in Pakistan,” said the Indian statement.
India also said that the nefarious designs of Pakistan also continue in Pakistan Occupied parts of Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Laddakh. The mass influx of outsiders has whittled down the number of Kashmiris to an insignificant number in Pakistan occupied parts of Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Laddakh. “In its zeal to reassert its theocratic ideology, it has ensured that ethnic and religious minorities have no future through systematic persecution, blasphemy laws, forced conversions, targeted killings, sectarian violence, and faith-based discrimination,” said the Indian representative. Thousands of Sikh, Hindus, and Christian minority women and girls in Pakistan have been subjected to abductions, forced marriages, and conversions.
Beside, the plight of people under its subjugation is well represented by the state of affairs in Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. Security forces of Pakistan are regularly blamed for the disappearance of people in this region which, of late, has become a daily occurrence. “Not a single day has gone by when a family in Baluchistan doesn’t find its members picked up or kidnapped by the security forces of Pakistan,” stated India.
The involvement of Pakistani authorities has been found in cases of intimidation and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and political dissidents. India said, “It is not without a reason that Pakistan has been highlighted by international organizations as a country where journalists are slain and their killers go scot free.”
Report by Abhishek Jha