India on Monday rejected Pakistan’s criticism of the human rights situation in the country, calling on Islamabad to do more to address issues such as persecution of minorities, enforced disappearances and the influx of outsiders into Pakistani-occupied Kashmir ( PoK).
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Exercising its “right to reply” in a debate in Geneva on situations requiring the attention of the UN Human Rights Council, India also noted that Pakistan remains a “safe haven for terrorists” and said that more training and launch pads for terrorists had appeared in PoK.
“None of Pakistan’s vile accusations against India could stifle the voice of the minorities and the people under their subjugation. The fate of religious and ethnic minorities is well known when beheading is the only option in Pakistan in exchange for freedom of religion, ”India said in its response from Pawan Badhe, first secretary of the permanent mission in Geneva.
“It should be a matter of concern to the Council that Pakistan has been continuously using this august forum for malicious propaganda against my country,” he added.
Different international organizations have described Pakistan as the “killing ground for minorities” and the Ahmadi community remains the most persecuted community in Pakistan. “Hundreds of Christians are persecuted every year, while most of them suffer violent deaths in Pakistan,” Badhe said.
Pakistan had also “institutionalized enforced disappearance as a tool of subjugation against dissent and criticism” against individuals and the entire society, the Indian response said.
“Children up to 12 years old in Baluchistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are usually kidnapped and trained to be suicide bombers. In a chilling reminder of what Pakistan is capable of, Pakistan’s ministers proudly call for another large-scale genocide against [the Baloch people] to resolve the political crisis in Balochistan ”, he added.
Badhe also said that Pakistan’s “deception and hypocrisy” is reflected in the “orchestrated massive influx” of outsiders to the Pakistani-occupied parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh through “discriminatory domicile laws.”
“It is puzzling that there are three strangers for every four [people] in Pakistan, occupied parts of the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. While civil, political and constitutional rights do not exist in the Pakistani-occupied parts of the Indian Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, deliberate economic policies have also subjugated them to a life of extreme poverty, ”he said.
At the same time, “large-scale training camps and terrorist launch pads are intensifying in Pakistani-occupied parts of the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh at great cost to sustain cross-border terrorism against India. It is not without reason that Pakistan remains a safe haven for terrorists. While the world is busy fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, Pakistan is misleading the world into allowing more than 4,000 banned terrorists to be delisted to maintain its terrorist ecosystem, ”he added.
The Indian response said that nothing can change the fact that “all the territory of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral part of India”, and Pakistan should see the reality and “stop coveting the territories of other countries”.
Statistics and data from international organizations have shown that Pakistan is a “minefield for journalists and human rights defenders”, who are often subjected to assassinations, harassment and attacks, he further said.
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