Geneva [Switzerland]: India slammed Pakistan during the ongoing 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council for repeatedly misusing the international forums to peddle its narrative on Kashmir issue.
India said that its recent decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir was creating obstacles in Pakistan's continuous sponsorship of cross border terrorism. "None of Pakistan's attempts to mispresent our decision under different agendas can hide its territorial ambitions over Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan's frantic reactions could be well understood as our decision is creating obstacles in Pakistan's continuous sponsorship of cross border terrorism against India," Kumam Mini Devi, First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India at UNHRC said.
Asserting that India's decisions regarding Jammu and Kashmir is an "internal matter", Kumam Mini Devi, First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India at UNHRC said, "We deplore repeated misuse of the Council by Pakistan with fabricated narratives against India. Our decision in Jammu and Kashmir is within our sovereign right and is an internal matter of India. " Devi made the remarks at the UNHRC while exercising India's right to reply to the statement made by Pakistan.
On August 5, the Government of India had announced the decision to abrogate Article 370 of the constitution which gave special status to Jammu Kashmir. Since then, rattled Pakistan is raising the matter at every international platform. The diplomat highlighted that the "cases of enforced disappearances, murders, detentions, custodial deaths and torture of civil rights activists, representatives of local political parties and journalists are common and standard practice adopted to silence voices against the Government and deep state in Gilgit-Baltistan" and other territories under Pakistan's control.
"While talking about acts of reprisals, let me turn to Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir and territories under its control. Rampant media censorship blocks channels of expression of popular resentment and ensures that the correct ground realities are never reported. The police brutality including aerial firing in Gilgit killing and injuring civilian protestors for demanding their basic political, constitutional and civil rights many times this year could not find prominence even in the domestic media of Pakistan," she said.
The Indian diplomat accused Pakistani establishment of keeping key activists and journalists under detention for voicing legitimate demands of people of POJK and other "occupied territories." "Baba Jan, Husnain Karmal, Safdar Ali, Inam Aziz, Sanaullah Khan, Inayat Karim, D.J. Mathal, Ijlal Hussain, Irfan Karim are some to name a few. It's not surprising that Pakistan has also driven out 10 international NGOs in 2017 and 18 international agencies in 2018 from POJK to prevent exposure of all human rights violations. That's what we expect from Pakistan," she said.
