New Delhi: In yet another blistering reply, India lambasted Pakistan at the General debate of the 48th session of the Union Human Rights Council for raking up the Kashmir issue, calling it a ‘radicalised and failed state’.
Exercising the right of reply, S. Senthil Kumar, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, said, “It is ironical that a radicalised and failed state like Pakistan, with no regard whatsoever for values and culture of democracy, dares to preach the largest and most vibrant democracy like India”.
He said that the council has seen increased and irrelevant rants by Pakistani delegates during debates under various agenda items, which only reflects their desperation and paranoiac state of mind. The entire territory of Jammu and Kashmir, including the territories occupied by Pakistan, has been, is and shall continue to be an integral part of India. “Pakistan, instead of wasting the time of the council, should devote its attention to grave human rights situation in Pakistan”, he added.
“Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions of those who try to speak against the establishment carried out by the State’s security agencies are rampant in Pakistan with impunity. Last week, speaking at the committee of enforced disappearances, Amina Massod shared the grief and pain inflicted upon her and several other families by the Pakistani authorities. It has been 16 years, she is still searching for her husband who was picked up by the Pakistani forces in 2005”, the envoy told the council.
Ambassador Kumar further noted that it is not surprising that Pakistan has consistently maintained its position as the world’s epicentre of terrorism and the leading exporter of terror and violence. “Pakistan is a country whose former presidents and prime ministers have openly acknowledged the support and inter-operational linkages between Pakistan’s state machinery and the UN proscribed terrorist organisations. We request the council to call upon Pakistan to take credible and irreversible steps to end sponsored terrorism and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in all the territories under its control”, he reiterated.
In the previous week, India hit out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s references to Kashmir in his United Nations General Assembly virtual speech and stated that Islamabad has an established history of actively supporting and harbouring terrorists. Exercising her right of reply, Sneha Dubey, First Secretary at UNGA, had said Pakistan is a country that has been globally recognised as one openly supporting, training, financing and providing arms to terrorists as a matter of state policy and that it holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UN Security Council. India has time and again thrashed Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue in different global fora, urging Islamabad to stay out of India’s internal affairs.
Also read: Don't need lessons from a failed state like Pakistan: India at UNHRC
