India on Monday (June 15) came down heavily on Pakistan for raising the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva and expressed “serious concern” over Pakistan’s audacity to accuse New Delhi and others of “effecting a state-sponsored genocide.”
Exercising its Right of Reply after Pakistan raised Kashmir issue at UNHRC, Senthil Kumar, the First Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission slammed Pakistan for misusing the UNHRC forum and said thta Pakistan must introspect on human rights situations in its country before giving advice to others.
Kumar asserted that crimes against humanity is a common thing in Pakistan and enforced disappearances, state violence, forced mass displacement, extrajudicial killings, army operations, torture camps, detention centres, and military camps are a regular feature in Balochistan.
Referring to India’s decision to abrogate Article 370 which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Kumar noted that the decision does not have any external ramifications. Kumar stressed that people of Jammu and Kashmir have welcomed the decison and marched ahead despite Islamabad’s “nefarious attempt” to derail peace and stability in the region.
“It’s unfortunate that Pakistan continues to maintain its track record of misuse of the Human Rights Council and its mechanism. 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,” Kumar said.
“It’s questionable that a country of serious credibility issues would talk about human rights and self-determination. This country emerged out of religious fundamentalism and bloodshed and its history rigged with assassinations, coups and puppets running,” he added.
Elaborating on the human rights abuses and persecution faced by the minority communities in Pakistan, Kumar said, “Systemic misuse of Blasphemy in Pakistan has terrorized the minorities 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. The state of Pakistan is well manifested in the impunity in the murder of 65 transgenders in Pakistan since 2015.”
“Enforced disappearances, state violence and forced mass displacements, harassment, extrajudicial killings, army operations, torture, kill-and-dumps, torture camps, detention centres, military camps are regular features in Balochistan. India also pointed out that there was no information on the fate of 47,000 Baloch persons and 35,000 Pashtuns who have been missing till date. It added that sectarian violence has claimed over 500 Hazaras in Baluchistan and more than 100,000 Hazaras have fled Pakistan,” he added.