A Pakistani diplomat Tuesday hit back at India for accusing Pakistan, during a UN Security Council debate on conflict-related sexual violence, of carrying out human rights abuses, calling New Delhi’s charges “fallacious.
“These falsehoods are nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention from India’s well-documented record of grave violations of international law and international humanitarian law, particularly in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as well as its systemic persecution, discrimination, and violence against minorities and marginalized communities within India,” Sarfraz Gohar, first secretary at the Pakistan Mission, told the 15-member Council.
The Pakistani delegate was exercising his right of reply to the Indian representative, Eldos Mathew Punnoose, who alleged that a series of rights abuses was taking place in Pakistan with “impunity.”
The Indian representative was reacting to a sharp statement made earlier in day by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, who highlighted the suffering and abuses of the Kashmiri women and girls at the hands of Indian military in occupied Kashmir.
In his remarks, Gohar, the Pakistani delegate, rejected his Indian counterpart’s accusations as “entirely baseless and politically motivated”. The reference to 1971, he said, was a “distortion of history”, adding, “India’s own military intervention in East Pakistan was a blatant violation of the UN Charter, and it is ironic that a country responsible for such actions now seeks to malign others.”
The BJP-RSS government, which has ruled India since 2014, was guilty of imposing a reign of terror, not only against the people of Kashmir, but also its own over 200 million Muslims, 2 million Christians and millions of Dalits and other ‘low-cast’ Hindus, the Pakistan delegate said.
“India’s crimes are well-documented, including the pogroms in Gujrat, Mumbai and Delhi; the frequent lynching of Muslims by ‘cow vigilantes’; the bulldozing of Muslim houses and shops; hate speech, including calls by political leaders and Hindutva priests for genocide against Muslims,” he said.
“In orgy of Islamophobia, Muslims are forcibly converted, or disenfranchised; Bans imposed on the hijab; ‘love Jihad’ laws adopted; And hundreds of Mosques, including the Babri Mosque, have been destroyed in the campaign to obliterate Muslims and their cultural heritage, the legacy of India.”
India’s epidemic of rape and sexual violence, where incidents such as the horrific Delhi gang rape and countless others continue to shock global conscience, Gohar pointed out.
Pakistan, he said, will not be deterred by these diversionary tactics and will continue to speak firmly and consistently in support of international law, the UN Charter, and the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
“India needs to shun its hubris and hate driven agenda, end its state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan, cease its oppression of Kashmiris, revoke all illegal and unilateral steps undertaken in the occupied territory, comply with its obligations under international law and UN Charter, including implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” the Pakistani delegate added.