At UNHRC, India Slams Pak, Turkey, OIC for remarks on Kashmir Issue

Geneva: India on Wednesday slammed Pakistan for misusing international platforms for “baseless and malicious propaganda” against it and said Islamabad would do well to put its own house in order, before venturing to point a finger at New Delhi.
On the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, India also slammed Turkey’s remarks on its “internal affairs”, terming them as “completely unacceptable”.
New Delhi also rejected the statement by Yousef A Al-Othaimeen, secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN Human Rights Council, terming them as “factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India”, according to news reports.
“As far as the subject of UN Resolutions is concerned, we would advise Turkey to practise what it preaches by first implementing those UN resolutions that apply to it,” second secretary of India’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, Seema Pujani, said.
Using its Right of Reply under the high-level segment of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in response to a statement by Pakistan’s representative, India said it was not surprised that Islamabad’s representative misused the UN forum yet again. “Pakistan’s continued misuse of various platforms to engage in baseless and malicious propaganda against India is not new,” Pujani, said.
She asserted that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an “integral and inalienable part of India”.
“The steps taken by the government to ensure good governance and development in these Union Territories are our internal matters,” Pujani said.
As a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records, Pakistan would do well to put its own house in order, before venturing to point a finger at India, the diplomat said.
Highlighting the violence and institutionalised discrimination and persecution faced by Pakistan’s minorities, including Christians, Sikhs and Hindus, she said that there have been frequent attacks on the places of worship of minority communities.
“The condition of women belonging to minority communities, notably Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, remains deplorable. An estimated 1,000 women from minority communities are subjected to abduction followed by forced conversion and forced marriage in Pakistan every year, according to a recent report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,” she said.
India also raised the issue of political repression in Balochistan, and other regions and enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture in Pakistan.
“Several Baloch human rights defenders have even met tragic death under mysterious circumstances, while in exile. Pashtuns and Sindhis have continued to struggle against the systemic oppression and discrimination,” the diplomat said.
Noting that Pakistan has been the home and patron to the largest number of internationally proscribed terrorist entities and individuals in the world, Pujani said the state-sponsored terrorism by Pakistan is a threat, not only to India but to other countries in the region and beyond.
The Indian diplomat also highlighted the recent acquittal of al-Qaeda terrorist and murderer of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, Omar Saeed Sheikh, by Pakistan’s Supreme Court and said it is “a clear example of the Pakistan establishment’s nexus with such entities.”