India rebuts Pakistan’s Kashmir remarks at UNHRC session

When Pakistan brought up Jammu and Kashmir at the UN Human Rights Council, India reacted angrily, saying it could not cooperate with a nation that actively supports terrorism around the globe. During the current meeting of the council on February 28, India’s reply was made by Anupama Singh, First Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. India used its right of reply to respond to comments made against Kashmir by Pakistan and Turkey.

“Firstly, we regret the comment made by Turkiye on a matter that is an internal affair of India and hope that it would refrain from making unsolicited comments on our internal matters in the future,” Ms. Singh said.

Coming down heavily on Pakistan, India said that “we cannot pay any further attention to a country that speaks while being soaked in red — the red of the bloodshed from the terrorism it sponsors around the world; the red of its debt-riddled national balance sheets; and the red of the shame its own people feel for their government having failed to serve their actual interests.”

A country that hosts and even celebrates UN Security Council-sanctioned terrorists, “commenting on India whose pluralistic ethos and democratic credentials are exemplars for the world, is a contrast for everyone to see,” she said, in an apparent reference to terror outfit leaders such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar enjoying the backing of the government in Pakistan.

Hitting out at Pakistan for the “extensive references” to India, Ms. Singh said it is deeply unfortunate for the Council’s platform to have once again been misused to make patently false allegations against India. “We are constrained to respond,” Ms. Singh said.

Ms. Singh argued that the Indian government’s constitutional measures to ensure socioeconomic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters of internal Indian affairs, and that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India. According to her, Pakistan lacks the authority to make decisions about Indian internal affairs.

Ms. Singh said that Pakistan is a country that has institutionalised the systemic persecution of its own minorities and has a truly abysmal human rights record. “Commenting on India, which is demonstratively making great strides in achieving economic progress and social justice, is not merely ironical, but perverse.” She cited the “glaring example” of large-scale brutality perpetrated against the minority Christian communities in Jaranwala city in Pakistan in August 2023, when 19 churches were gutted, and 89 Christian houses burnt down.