Pakistan hit back at India after the latter described occupied Kashmir as an “internal matter” and levelled allegations of sponsoring terrorism against the previous.
After Prime Minister Imran Khan bound up his fiery address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday, during which he criticized the planet for its silence on Indian actions in occupied Kashmir, the Indian delegation exercised its right to reply.
In her speech, India’s First Secretary Sneha Dubey said Pakistan played the “victim of terrorism” but instead fostered terrorists in its backyard, Scroll.in reported.
She also claimed that occupied Kashmir and Ladakh “were, are and can always be an integral and inalienable a part of India”. She emphasised that this included areas that are “occupied” by Pakistan, consistent with the report.
In response, Pakistani representative Saima Saleem said that occupied Kashmir wasn’t a “so-called integral a part of India neither is it India’s internal matter”.
“India remains in occupation of an internationally recognised disputed territory whose final disposition must be decided in accordance with the democratic principle of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, as provided for under numerous resolutions of the safety Council,” she said.
She said that India was levelling baseless allegations and counting on “outright lies and obfuscation” to divert attention from human rights violations in occupied Kashmir.
“India’s compulsive obsession with Pakistan is neither new nor surprising. it’s permeated its ruling elite and governance structures.
“But there’s a way to the present obsession because it underpins India’s electoral and policy under the ruling RSS-BJP ‘Hindutva’ inspired government.”
She said that the EU Disinfo lab had explained how India has used such tools of deflection, deception and disinformation against Pakistan, including at the United Nations .
She said that Indian human rights violations in occupied Kashmir were also documented in two reports by the UN diplomat on Human Rights.
“Since August 5, 2019, the diplomat has urged India to ‘unlock things and fully restore the rights that are currently being denied’ to the people of IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir].
“Several other special rapporteurs and mandate holders have also termed the human rights situation in IIOJK during a ‘free fall’. Major human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have expressed similar serious concerns about India’s human rights violations, including in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
“Not surprisingly, Indian authorities have did not answer any of those communications.”
The Pakistani representative said a witch hunt had been launched against those that “dared to report the crimes”.
“Only last year, Amnesty International ceased add India citing constant harassment at the hands of the govt ,” she acknowledged .
She added that the Pakistani government had recently released a comprehensive dossier on the systemic and widespread human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian security forces within the occupied valley.
Read: Pakistan unveils dossier on war crimes, rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir
“We call upon the international community to require cognisance of the compelling evidence and hold India in charge of the heinous crimes.
“If India has nothing to cover , it must accept a UN commission of inquiry and comply with implement the safety Council resolutions stipulating a plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination,” she said.
‘India principal perpetrator of terrorism in region’
Commenting on the Indian allegations of Pakistan sponsoring terrorism, she said: “As for India’s use of the canard of terrorism, regurgitating stale arguments that are typical of all occupiers.
“Let me emphasise that India itself is that the principal perpetrator, sponsor, financier and abettor of terrorism within the region.”
She said that India was currently involved in a minimum of four differing types of terrorism. First being state terrorism to suppress the people of occupied Kashmir.
Second, funding and supporting terrorist groups, like the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is involved in cross border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets.
Third, India is financing and organising mercenary terrorist organisations against Pakistan to impede economic process and prosperity of the region, the Pakistani representative said, adding that Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had also publicly admitted to the present .
Fourth, India is being guided by a supremacist ideology that has mainstreamed Islamophobia and bigotry against minorities, particularly Muslims, in its political discourse, she said.
“In today’s incredibly intolerant India, the 200 million-strong Muslim minority faces frequent lynching by ‘cow vigilantes’, pogroms by RSS thugs with official complicity, discriminatory citizenship laws to disenfranchise Muslims, and a concerted campaign to destroy mosques and therefore the rich Muslim heritage of India.”
The Pakistani representative concluded her speech by stating that the Indian delegation would had best to reflect on the troubling trajectory of their state, instead of “indulging in patent falsehoods about Pakistan”.
“India must realise that it’s continuously and miserably did not suppress the Kashmiris living under its occupation from demanding their inalienable right to self-determination,” she said.
Saleem’s response also garnered attention from federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry.
In a tweet, he said: “Saima Saleem exercising right of reply in UNGA. Saima is visually impaired, but [the] way [in which] she spoke [it] seems her heart can see everything. you’ve got made us proud. Thank you.”
