India on Monday criticised Pakistan for raising the topic of Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations Human Rights Council and said that Pakistan’s attempt to accuse other countries of “effecting a state-sponsored genocide” was a matter of “serious concern”, ANI reported.
India was exercising its right to reply after Pakistan raised the Kashmir matter at the 43rd session of the UNHRC. First Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission, Geneva, Senthil Kumar, accused the neighbouring country of misusing the council and its mechanism for establishing its “narrow political agenda” against India.
“It’s unfortunate that Pakistan continues to maintain its track record of misuse of the Human Rights Council and its mechanism,” Kumar said. “It’s a matter of serious concern that Pakistan being the only country in South Asia of effecting a state-sponsored genocide would have the audacity to accuse others of it.”
He added that India’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status last year did not have any “external ramifications”. On August 5, the Centre split the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories and rescinded its special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. It also revoked Article 35A, the law that allowed the administration of the former state to define “state subjects” and reserve for them certain rights, such as the right to own land and hold government jobs.
Kumar said that people had marched ahead despite Pakistan’s “nefarious attempt” to derail peace and prosperity.
New Delhi asked Islamabad to look at its own track record before offering advice to others. India said that it was questionable that a country of serious credibility issues would speak about human rights and self-determination. “This country emerged out of religious fundamentalism and bloodshed and its history [is] rigged with assassinations, coups and puppets running,” Kumar said.
He further said that enforced disappearances, state violence and forced mass displacements, army operations, torture, detention centres, military camps were regular features in Balochistan.
Kumar added that the fate of the missing 47,000 Baloch and 35,000 Pashtuns is not known. “Sectarian violence has claimed [the lives of] more than 500 Hazaras in Baluchistan and more than 100,000 Hazaras have fled Pakistan,” he said.
The Indian diplomat added that the systemic misuse of blasphemy in the country has terrorised the minority communities in Pakistan. “The recent fate of two Hindu girls in Sindh, one Christian girl in Lahore, one Ahmadi lady in Chaleki, two professors from Khairpur are the examples of systemic targeting of minorities through blasphemy laws,” Kumar said. “The state of Pakistan is well manifested in the impunity in the murder of 65 transgenders in Pakistan since 2015.”
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