India on Thursday lambasted Pakistan while responding to the neighbouring country's envoy at the UN Human Rights Council, citing illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s and attacks on minorities in their country.
Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi said India exercises its right of reply in response to Pakistan's extraordinary combination of historical revisionism, invented statistics and sectarian insinuation.
'We Again Call Upon It To Vacate': India On PoK
"Since Pakistan appears to need the reminder under every agenda item: Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. The only part of Jammu and Kashmir under foreign occupation is the part Pakistan holds, which we again call upon it to vacate," he said, addressing the council.
Among the grievances Pakistan listed, it included temples, in the same breath as liquor shops, Tyagi jabbed Pakistan. "We will not dignify the claim itself. But the Council should note what it reveals: a State that counts a place of worship as evidence of a crime. That is how Pakistan sees the faith of others, and its own minorities live with the consequences," he added.
In Pakistan, Hindu, Sikh And Christian Communities Have Shrunk Drastically: India
Tyagi asserted that India is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, and our minorities vote, legislate, sit on our highest court and lead our institutions, while in Pakistan, Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities have shrunk drastically since independence.
"Their daughters are abducted, forcibly converted and married off. Blasphemy laws hang over every minority household. Its own Muslim minorities, Shias, Ahmadiyyas, Ismailis and Hazaras, face systemic persecution, and their places of worship are attacked and desecrated. A State with that record is in no position to lecture anyone on minorities," he slammed Pakistan.
India Cites Kashmiri Pandits Exodus In 1990s
Pakistan speaks of ethnic cleansing in the Kashmir Valley, he said, adding that the Council does not need Pakistan to explain it. "It happened in 1990, to the Kashmiri Pandits, driven from their homes by terrorists Pakistan armed, trained and sent across the border. Those same terrorists have since killed Kashmiris of every faith, many of them Muslim. The State that sponsored them is now asking this Council for an inquiry. The irony will not be lost on this Council," Tyagi said.
"Pakistan says the situation it describes meets every objective criterion for this Council's attention. We agree that such a situation exists. This Council was told last Friday of scores of civilians killed since June in the territory Pakistan occupies, of students arrested in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and of food and medicine held back. When those accounts were given, Pakistan's answer was a point of order. If any delegation in this room meets every objective criterion for this Council's scrutiny, it is Pakistan," he highlighted.
Pakistan would better serve its people by focusing on development, rather than by coveting territory of others or exporting terror, because neither these nor its theatrics in the Council would help repay the loans its economy survives on, Tyagi said.
(With ANI inputs)
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