Pakistan on Wednesday welcomed the recommendations of the United Nations to form a Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged human rights violations committed by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Last week, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued the first-ever report on the situation in Kashmir, which details alleged human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control. On Tuesday, India urged the UN to reject the report, saying it “undermines the UN-led consensus on terrorism and legitimises terrorism by referring to UN designated terrorist entities as ‘armed groups’.”

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“The excessive use of force, indiscriminate killing of civilians, blindings by pellet guns, cases of mass graves and sexual violence by India in Jammu and Kashmir constitute crimes against humanity, which must be investigated,” Pakistan’s permanent representative in UN, Farukh Amil, said at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Amil also condemned the killing of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, according to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Amil said Pakistan had long sought the United Nation’s focus on Jammu and Kashmir, and “the latest report reaffirms Pakistan’s well-known position on the grave human rights abuses committed by India in Indian-occupied Jammu [and] Kashmir”.

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“The [Commission of Inquiry] is consistent with Pakistan’s several calls to this effect since 2016, even as India has continued to ignore legitimate demands for a credible probe mechanism,” Amil said. He also endorsed the UN’s call for a political dialogue to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Replying to India’s statement, Amil said “Indian atrocities in Indian-Occupied Kashmir cannot be subsumed under the label of terrorism.” He also urged India to analyse its human rights violations in Jammu and “tackle Hindutva extremism and rank communalism” in the country.