India exercised its right to respond in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and rebutted the accusations made by Pakistan's representative, Hina Rabbani Khar, regarding the country's defence procurements, labelling it as "malicious propaganda" against India.
India hits back at Pakistan with 'misplaced priority' jibe
India's representative Seema Pujani, speaking at the council, said: "Pakistan's obsession with India while its population battle for their lives, livelihood and freedom is an indication of the state's misplaced priorities. I would advise its leadership and officials to focus their energies on working for the benefit of their own population instead of baseless propaganda."
Furthermore, she conveyed her regret regarding the remarks made by the Turkish representative and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the matter of Jammu and Kashmir.
India responds to comments made by Turkey and OIC
"We regret the comments made by Turkiye on a matter that is an internal affair of India and advise it to refrain from making unsolicited comments on our internal matters," Pujani said.
"As regards the OIC statement, we reject the unwarranted references to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The fact is that the entire territories of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and shall always be part of India. Pakistan is in illegal occupation of Indian territory. Instead of calling upon its member Pakistan to give up state-sponsored terrorism and to lift its occupation of Indian territory, OIC has let Pakistan hijack and misuse its platform for carrying out its nefarious agenda of engaging in malicious propaganda against India," she added further.
Khar had raised issue of supply of weapons to India
On Thursday, Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, made comments without explicitly mentioning India, expressing her concerns that the "generous" supply of both conventional and non-conventional weaponry to the country was seriously undermining South Asia's strategic stability and jeopardizing Pakistan's "national security".
As per Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, she addressed a UN panel of high-ranking officials in a virtual conference from Islamabad and said: "The largest country in the region continues to be a beneficiary of nuclear exceptionalism, in violation of established non-proliferation norms and principles."
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
