New Delhi, March 13: India has accused Pakistan of wrecking any chance of a resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir discord by failing to act on the UN resolutions.
Misplaced demand
It also rejected Pakistan’s demand for self-determination, an oft-used phrase by Kashmiri separatists, by pointing out that the exercise of this option is applicable to colonial territories and can’t be misused as an instrument to erode territorial integrity and sovereignty of any member state.
A reply filed by the Indian Permanent Representative in Geneva at the ongoing 40th Session of Human Rights Council said the UN resolutions on resolving the Kashmir problem were sabotaged by Pakistan when its army failed to vacate the territories under its control.
Pakistan in the dock
India tried to turn the tables in its first right of reply by accusing Pakistan of a range of human rights violations, including harassment of minorities through blasphemy law, forced conversions and marriages of minorities, suppression of political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan is known to the international community for its acts of aggression, harbouring safe havens for terrorists, military courts trying civilians, mass cases of enforced disappearances in north western Pakistan, state-sponsored extreme prejudices, religious intolerance and attacks on Muslim minorities such as Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailias and Hazaras.
India accused Pakistan of misusing the Human Rights Council for raking up malicious propaganda against India.
“The matters that need to be addressed are Pakistan’s illegal occupation of a part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and the continued suffering of the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir who are victims of sectarian conflict, systemic army persecution, violence, terrorism, extreme economic hardships, discriminatory policies and denial of even basic rights,” said the statement.
Main challenge
It said the main challenge to protecting the human rights in J&K was the Pakistani support to cross-border terrorism and cited several former and serving members of Pakistan’s security apparatus in this respect.
‘Pak used JeM’
“The confirmation of using UN proscribed terror organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as an instrument of state policy by Pakistani military or political leadership is already in public domain. Pakistan’s former NSA Asad Durrani, former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf had already admitted Pakistani complicity in creating disturbances in J&K. Musharraf has admitted this month that JeM chief Masood Azhar carried out terror attacks in India on the instructions of the ISI. The current Foreign Minister has reaffirmed the presence of the JeM on Pakistani soil,” it pointed out.
