At United Nations, India slams Pakistan for raking up UN report on Kashmir

Taking strong exception to Pakistan’s reference to a UN report on Kashmir at the Security Council, India on Tuesday said that the “so-called” report reflects “clear bias” and was not even found fit to be considered by the members of the human rights body where it was submitted.

Pakistan on Monday had raised the issue of alleged human rights violation in Jammu and Kashmir at a UN session. This was the third instance when the country had raked up the issue in as many weeks.

India, however, poured cold water on Pakistan’s ambitions, saying that Islamabad has once again misused the UN forum by

India hit back, saying there has been yet another attempt by Pakistan to misuse the UN forum by raking up irrelevant issues to the discussions.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, who had once flashed a fake image of a “pellet gun victim” to malign India, referred to the June 14 report on Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein during a Security Council debate on Children and Armed Conflict.

Also Read | India rejects UN report on human rights violation in Kashmir, terms it ‘motivated’

In the first-ever report on human rights, Hussein had demanding an international probe into the alleged rights violation in Kashmir and investigate the mass graves in Kashmir valley and Jammu region.

India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Tanmaya Lal, in a scathing reply, said the “so-called” report about the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir reflects the “clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information.

He said the report “was not even found fit to be considered by the membership of the forum where it was submitted.”

India had rejected the “fallacious, tendentious and motivated” report on alleged human rights violation in Kashmir.

With Pakistan repeatedly raking up the Kashmir issue at various UN sessions and platforms, Lal said such attempts distract the discussions away from the issues at hand.

“Such deliberate self-serving attempts by Pakistan seek to obfuscate the reality of their own use of terror organisations to undermine state sovereignty...Such attempts have not succeeded in the past in any forum and will not do so now,” Lal said.

(With inputs from agencies)