Says stop rights violations in PoK before sermonising to us
United Nations : India on Tuesday hit back at Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue at the UN again, saying it should first stop human rights violations in PoK and ensure the right of self-determination for the victims before ‘sermonising’ others on it.
Visiting Member of Parliament Rattan Lal Kataria rejected the ‘unwarranted’ references to Jammu and Kashmir made by Pakistan’s envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi in the Third Committee of the General Assembly on ‘Right to self- determination’ on Monday.
Kataria said it is very ‘ironical’ that comments on Kashmir and self-determination “come from a country which is persisting with its illegal occupation of part of the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir and consistently denying human rights of the occupied territory.”
“Pakistan should first stop human rights violations in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir and ensure the right of self-determination for the victims before sermonising others on it,” he said in his statement to the committee here.
In her statement, Lodhi had repeated Pakistan’s call for UN Security Council resolutions to be implemented in the state and said fulfilling promise of self-determination to the Kashmiri people is ‘indispensable’ to establishing lasting peace and stability in South Asia.
“The continued suffering of Kashmiri women, children and men should shake the collective conscience of the international community,” Lodhi had said.
“The 70th Anniversary of the United Nations ought to be a catalyst to spur this body into action, and not just more words. Fulfilment of the long-held promise of self- determination to the Kashmiri people is urgent as well as indispensable to establishing lasting peace and stability in South Asia,” she had said. —PTI
