New Delhi: India hit back sharply at Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who had raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and made critical remarks about the status of human rights and minority rights in India at the UN General Assembly.
“It is regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan has chosen the platform of this august assembly to make false accusations against India. He has done so to obfuscate misdeeds in his own country and to justify actions against India that the world considers unacceptable,” First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Mijito Vinito said in the Right of Reply.
India’s sharp riposte came after Sharif had said that Pakistan wanted to have peace with India but added that long-lasting, enduring peace can only be insured and guaranteed through a “just and fair solution to the issue of Kashmir under the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions”. India has always maintained that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country and expected no external intervention.
In response to Sharif, Vinito in his response said a country seeking peace with its neighbour “would not make unjustified and untenable territorial claims against neighbours”.
In reference to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Vinito said, “A polity that claims it seeks peace with its neighbours would never sponsor cross-border terrorism. Nor would it shelter planners of the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, disclosing their existence only under pressure from the international community.”
Speaking on growing Islamophobia around the world, Sharif had pointed fingers at India, “The officially sponsored campaign of oppression against India’s over 200 million Muslims is the worst manifestation of Islamophobia. They are subjected to discriminatory laws and policies, hijab bans, attacks on mosques and lynchings by Hindu mobs. I’m particularly concerned by the calls for genocide against India’s Muslims by some extremists.”
To this, India hit back saying, “It is not just about the neighbourhood that we have heard false claims today. It is about human rights, about minority rights and about basic decencies. When young women in the thousands from the minority community are abducted as an SoP (Standard Operating Procedure) what can we conclude about the underlying mindset?”
Vinito was implicitly referring to attacks against minorities in Pakistan, and the abduction of a number of Hindu girls.
India asserted that the desire for peace, security and progress in the Indian subcontinent was real, adding it was also widely shared and can be realised.
“That will surely happen when cross-border terrorism ceases, when governments come clean with the international community and with their own people. When minorities are not persecuted and not least when we recognise these realities before this Assembly,” Vinito said.
On Kashmir, Sharif had said, “In a classic settler colonial project, India is seeking to turn the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu territory through illegal demographic changes.” He had accused India of seizing land from Kashmiris, gerrymandering and registering false voters.
Pakistan has made accusations against India at UNGA in previous years and India has exercised its right of reply.
(With PTI inputs)
