India hit back at Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and made critical comments on the situation of human rights and minority rights in India at the UN General Assembly.
“It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister of Pakistan has chosen the platform of this august assembly to make false accusations against India. He has done it to obfuscate the misdeeds in his own country and to justify actions against India that the world finds unacceptable,” First Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Mijito Vinito, said in the right of reply.
India’s sharp retort came after Sharif said that Pakistan wanted peace with India, but added that lasting and lasting peace can only be secured and guaranteed through a “just and equitable solution to the Kashmir issue under the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. India has always maintained that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and will forever be” an integral part of the country and did not expect any outside intervention.
In his response to Sharif, Vinito said that a country seeking peace with its neighbor “would not make unjustified and untenable territorial claims against neighbors.”
Referring to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Vinito said: “A politician who claims to seek peace with her neighbors would never sponsor cross-border terrorism. Nor would it give shelter to the planners of the horrific Bombay terrorist attack, revealing its existence only under pressure from the international community.”
Speaking of rising Islamophobia in the world, Sharif pointed to India: “The officially sponsored campaign of oppression against India’s more than 200 million Muslims is the worst manifestation of Islamophobia. They are subject to discriminatory laws and policies, hijab bans, mosque attacks and lynchings by Hindu mobs. I am particularly concerned about calls for genocide against Muslims in India by some extremists.”
To this, India countered by saying: “It is not just about the neighbourhood, we have heard false claims today. These are human rights, minority rights and basic decency. When thousands of young women from the minority community are abducted as standard operating procedure, what can we conclude about the underlying mentality?
India’s sharp retort came after Sharif said Pakistan wanted peace with India.
Vinito was implicitly referring to the attacks against minorities in Pakistan and the kidnapping of several Hindu girls.
India stated that the desire for peace, security and progress in the Indian subcontinent is real, adding that it is also widely shared and can be realized.
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“That will surely happen when cross-border terrorism stops, when governments come clean with the international community and with their own people. When minorities are not persecuted and, above all, when we recognize these realities before this Assembly”, said Vinito.
India stated that the desire for peace, security and progress in the Indian subcontinent is real, adding that it is also widely shared and can be realized.
On Kashmir, Sharif had said: “In a classic settler colonial project, India is trying to turn Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu territory through illegal demographic changes.” He accused India of grabbing land from Kashmiris, establishing a hierarchy and registering false voters.
Pakistan has made accusations against India at the UNGA in previous years and India has exercised its right of reply.
Article republished from The Wire as part of an agreement between both parties to share content. Link to original article: https://thewire.in/government/false-accusations-india-hits-back-at-pakistan-pms-remarks-at-un-on-kashmir-human-rights
