India: Pakistan must stop wasting UNHRC's time, admit it is terror factory

Pawan Kumar Badhe, First Secretary at Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, said Pakistan wanted to divert the attention of the Council from its own serious violations of human rights.

India slams Pakistan, OIC at UNHRC over Kashmir-VPN

Anish Kumar

New Delhi, First Published Mar 2, 2021, 7:12 PM IST | Last Updated Mar 2, 2021, 7:12 PM IST

Stating that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has no locus standi to comment on matters related to Jammu and Kashmir, India on Tuesday said that it is regrettable that the grouping continues to allow itself to be exploited by Pakistan to indulge in anti-India propaganda.

"We reject the reference to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the statement of the OIC. It has no locus standi to comment on matters related to Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India," said Pawan Kumar Badhe, First Secretary at Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, during India's right to reply to statements made by Pakistan and OIC at the 46th Session of the United Nations Human Right Council.

India also lambasted Pakistan for deliberately misusing the platform for its malicious propaganda against New Delhi.

Badhe also said Pakistan wanted to divert the attention of the Council from its own serious violations of human rights.

India's first secretary at Permanent Mission of India in the UN also raked up Pakistan providing pensions of UN proscribed terrorists from its exchequer.

"The members of the Council are well aware that Pakistan has provided pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists out of State funds and has the dubious distinction of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the United Nations," he said.

"Pakistani leaders have admitted the fact that it has become a factory for producing terrorists. Pakistan has ignored that terrorism is the worst form of human rights abuse and the supporters of terrorism are the worst abusers of human rights," Badhe added.

Suggesting the Council to quiz Pakistan on why the size of its minority communities such as Christians, Hindus and Sikhs has drastically shrunk since independence, the first secretary also questioned Pakistan as to why other communities such as Ahmadiyyas, Shias, Pashtuns, Sindhis and the Baloch have been subjected to the draconian blasphemy laws, systemic persecution, blatant abuses and forced conversions.

In his reply, Badhe also raised the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and said, "Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions of those who try to speak against the establishment are rampant in Pakistan and have been carried out by the State's security agencies with impunity. Recently, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key suspect in the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, was allowed to go scot-free."

He also highlighted the disappearances and killings of Baloch Human Rights defenders.

He also advised Islamabad to stop wasting the time of the council and said, "Pakistan, a country in dire economic situation, will be well advised to stop wasting the time of the Council and its mechanisms, stop state-sponsored cross-border terrorism and end the institutionalised violation of human rights of its minority and other communities."

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