Pakistan refused to accept bodies of its soldiers killed in Kargil war, India says at UN

The interim report by Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, raised concerns over ‘restrictions on funeral rights’ in Jammu and Kashmir. The report referred to the denial of the return of bodies to families and the use of remote or secret burials, practices it said disproportionately affected Muslims and conflicted with their religious customs.

Responding during an interactive dialogue on funeral rights in exceptional circumstances on Thursday, Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, questioned Pakistan’s position on the issue.

She said it was ironic that Pakistan was speaking extensively about faith, religious freedom and burials despite not accepting the bodies of its own soldiers killed during the Kargil conflict.

During the 1999 war, the Indian Army recovered the bodies of Pakistani soldiers and buried several of them with military honours in accordance with Islamic rites, even as Pakistan declined to acknowledge the involvement of its military personnel in the conflict, she said.

Mangalanandan also urged Pakistan to focus on developments in areas of Jammu and Kashmir under its control, including Rawalakot, rather than concentrating on the Indian Union Territory. She further accused Pakistan of failing to protect its minorities, alleging that their numbers were declining and their rights were routinely violated.

“A State that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no standing to lecture India,” she said.

Addressing the report’s discussion of funeral rights for individuals accused of terrorism, Mangalanandan argued that governments could impose restrictions within the framework of applicable legal limits and sovereign rights. She said terrorism not only takes innocent lives but also causes lasting psychological harm to a nation.

She also criticised the report for what she described as an imbalance in its treatment of victims and perpetrators of terrorism, arguing that its emphasis on the rights of those accused of terrorist acts did not adequately acknowledge the suffering of their victims.

Mangalanandan further questioned the report’s selection of examples, saying it relied on incidents involving India dating back several years while overlooking more recent alleged violations in the region and elsewhere in the developed world.

Referring to the report’s discussion of discrimination and misconduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, she questioned why similar incidents in developed countries had not received comparable attention.