As a matter of state policy, Pakistan continues to provide pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists and hosts them on its soil, according to India. The neighbouring country should also be held “accountable for aiding and abetting terrorism,” according to the report.
At the 47th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Pawankumar Badhe, first Secretary, Indian Permanent Mission in Geneva, made the remarks (UNHRC). Following Pakistan’s remarks, Badhe exercised India’s right to respond, emphasising Pakistan’s systematic persecution of minorities, which includes draconian blasphemy laws, forced conversions and marriages, and extrajudicial killings.
“The scourge of terrorism is the gravest violation of human rights and must be dealt with in strongest terms in all its forms and manifestations,” he said.
The remarks came after Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, attempted to bring up the Kashmir issue during an interactive dialogue on the high commissioner’s annual report.
Badhe accused Islamabad of diverting the Council’s attention away from Pakistan’s “dreadful human rights situation.”
“Forced conversions have become a daily phenomenon in Pakistan. We have seen reports of minor girls belonging to religious minorities being abducted, raped, forcibly converted and married. More than 1,000 girls, belonging to religious minorities, are forcibly converted in Pakistan every year,” the Indian official said.
“Journalists are threatened, intimidated, taken off 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,” Badhe added.
This comes just days after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the US for help in resolving the Kashmir dispute with India in an interview with HBO’s Axios news programme.
Khan admitted that he hasn’t spoken to US President Joe Biden since the latter took office in January, but that if the two leaders met, he would bring up the issue of Kashmir.
In the past, India has ruled out any third-party intervention or mediation in the Kashmir dispute. In the wake of Islamabad’s statements opposing any possible changes in Jammu and Kashmir, New Delhi has maintained that the region is an integral part of India. Such actions, India claimed, amounted to interfering.
