World News | At UNHRC, India Slams Pakistan for Malicious Propaganda, Raking Up Bilateral Issues at Multilateral Forms

Geneva [Switzerland], March 8 (ANI): India on Tuesday slammed Pakistan at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for raking bilateral issues at multilateral forms and said that the top leadership of Pakistan has openly admitted that their military and intelligence agency (ISI) has created terrorist groups to fight in Afghanistan and the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Exercising its Right of Reply in response to preposterous and malicious statements made by Pakistan and the OIC general debate session during the 49th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), India said, "It is shameful that a country, whose top leadership has openly admitted that it's military and intelligence agency has created terrorist groups and trained them to fight in Afghanistan and the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has the audacity to comment about the human rights of people in India."

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India also categorically rejected the reference to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the OIC's statement and noted that Pakistan is using the OIC platform for its own agenda against India.

"It is regrettable that session after session the OIC has allowed its platform to be exploited by Pakistan for serving its own anti-India agenda. OIC Member States appear helpless in preventing Pakistan from undermining the interests of OIC Member States," he added.

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"The platform offered by this August Council for dialogue and constructive engagement has been misused by Pakistan yet again," India's Permanent Representative to United Nations, Indramani Pandey said at UNHRC.

India said, "Pakistan's attempts at raking up bilateral issues in multilateral forums and engaging in disinformation and propaganda against India are not new, but have increasingly become more desperate, baseless and malicious."

Drawing the attention of the Council towards terror activities brewing in Pakistan, India said, "The perpetrators of 2008 Mumbai terror attack have remained unpunished. The world remembers the horrors of the 2016 Pathankot terror attack. We all know where the perpetrators of these attacks came from. It was in February 2019 that 40 brave men of Indian security forces were martyred in a dastardly terrorist attack in Pulwama carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan based terrorist organisation proscribed by the UN."

"Pakistan has failed in meeting the global demand for dismantling of the terrorism mill in Pakistan that churns out terrorists who are responsible for violating the most fundamental of human rights, the right to life, of people in our region and around the world. Pakistan has ignored the reality that it has become a victim of its own State policies to nurture terrorist organizations," he added.

Indian Permanent representative to UN also condemned Pakistan for its blasphemy laws. He recalled, "In its concluding observations on the initial report of Pakistan, the Human Rights Committee had expressed serious concern over its blasphemy laws that carry draconian penalties, including the mandatory death sentence, and over hate crimes against persons belonging to religious minorities. However, in the absence of State action, Pakistan's minority communities continue to be victims of targeted sectarian violence."

"Murder by vigilantes on flimsy allegations of blasphemy, extrajudicial killings, rape, abduction, forced conversion to Islam, forced marriage of minor girls and attacks on places of worship remains a sad reality for Pakistan's Hazara Shias, Ahmadiyas, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. As a result of persistent discrimination and state persecution, the number of minorities has continued to decline in Pakistan," he stated at the UNHRC session.

During the session, he reiterated that the entire territory of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has been and shall remain an integral and inalienable part of India. (ANI)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)