India has said at the United Nations that Pakistan is a ‘hub of terrorism’ and the country’s ‘cynical’ attempts to spread false narrative regarding Kashmir has been always unsuccessful, reported the Press Trust of India.
India’s remarks came after Pakistan again brought up the Kashmir issue in its Right of Reply.
The representative of Pakistan said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights has identified many violations in Kashmir and added that repeating groundless accusations do not make them fact.
A farce can only go so far, the Pakistani representative said, according to the information about the session available online.
India exercised its right of reply following a General Assembly debate yesterday on the responsibility to protect after Pakistan said that Kashmir was never a part of India.
First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Sandeep Kumar Bayyapu said in India’s Right of Reply that “repeated and cynical attempts by Pakistan, a hub of terrorism in our region and beyond, to spread a false narrative about the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir have not succeeded earlier and will not do so now”.
He asserted that India did not wish to engage on this further.
During a June 25 General Assembly debate on the Responsibility to Protect, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi had made a reference to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
India had then strongly rejected Pakistan’s reference to Kashmir in the 193-member UN body saying in its Right of Reply that cynical attempts by Pakistan to raise the Kashmir issue in the UN have failed in the past and do not find any resonance in the UN body.
With Pakistan again referring to Kashmir in its Right of Reply yesterday, Bayyapu responded that during the session on responsibility to protect last week, India had placed on record its rejection of yet another attempt by the delegation of Pakistan to misuse the UN forum and raise the issue of Kashmir.
Recently, in a first of it’s kind report the United Nations, released on June 14, alleged “widespread” human rights violations in Kashmir and claimed “excessive use of force by Indian security forces” led to “numerous civilian casualties”.
The 49-page report report states that there is an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have suffered a conflict that has claimed or ruined numerous lives.
The report which focuses on human rights situation in Indian-Administered and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir – details human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control, and highlights a situation of chronic impunity for violations committed by forces.
“The political dimensions of the dispute between India and Pakistan have long been centre-stage, but this is not a conflict frozen in time. It is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic human rights, and continues to this day to inflict untold suffering,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
India has lodged a strong protest with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) over the report.
Even the Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat called the reported ‘motivated’.
“I don’t think we should get too concerned with these reports. Some of these reports [by human rights organisation] are motivated,” General Rawat had told reporters.
