Pakistan should be held accountable for aiding terrorism: India

Slamming Pakistan in its right of reply at the 47th session of the Human Rights Council, India said that it's high time that Pakistan is held accountable for abetting and aiding terrorism.

New Delhi: India in its right of reply at the 47th session of the Human Rights Council on Tuesday said that Pakistan, at its state policy, continues to provide pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists and hosts them on its territory. It is high time that Pakistan is held accountable for abetting and aiding terrorism.

Addressing the 47th session of the United Nations Human Right Council, Pawankumar Badhe, First Secretary, Indian Permanent Mission in Geneva said, "The source of terrorism is the gravest violation of human rights and must be dealt with in strongest terms in all its forms and manifestations". Pakistan, as it's a state policy, continues to provide pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists and hosts them on its territory. It is high time that Pakistan is held accountable for aiding and abetting terrorism" he reiterated.

The remarks came after Khalil Hashmi Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN in Geneva, tried to rake up the Kashmir issue at the interactive dialogue on the annual report of the High Commissioner. Badhe further accused Pakistan of distracting the Council's attention from the deplorable human rights situation in Pakistan. "The plight of minorities in Pakistan is evident from their shrinking size. Forced conversions have become a daily phenomenon in Pakistan", he highlighted saying that more than 1,000 girls, belonging to religious minorities, are forcibly converted in Pakistan every year.

He said that Pakistan has also become the land of enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and arbitrary detentions of political activists, students, journalists, human rights defenders and minorities. "Pakistan has the dubious distinction of being listed as one of the dangerous countries for practice of journalism. Journalists are threatened, intimidated, taken off the air, kidnapped and in some cases killed, mainly to silence critics of the establishment. While families of victims continue to struggle for justice, the perpetrators of these acts have enjoyed complete impunity", he added.

India has time and again lambasted Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue in different global fora and has asked Islamabad to stay out of India's internal matters. India has maintained that the region is an integral part of India and ruled out any intervention and mediation on the Kashmir issue by any third party.