JOIN USIndia turns table on Turkey, Pakistan, slams OIC for raising Kashmir issue at UNHRC
India on Wednesday turned the table on Turkey and Pakistan, slamming the two nations for raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
New Delhi also dismissed the statement made by Yousef A Al-Othaimeen, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), at the UNHRC, referring to the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. “We reject the factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India. We regret that the OIC countries continue to allow Pakistan to misuse OIC platforms to indulge in anti-India propaganda,” said S Pujani, Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations offices in Geneva. She was making a statement at the 46th session of the UNHRC, exercising India’s right to reply to the allegations made by Pakistan, Turkey and the OIC.
“As a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records, Pakistan would do well to put its own house in order, before venturing to point a finger at India,” she said, referring to “violence, institutionalized discrimination and persecution” of the minorities in the neighbouring country.
She cited a report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to point out that an estimated 1,000 women, mostly aged between 16 and 25 years – from minority communities were subjected to abduction followed by forced conversion and forced marriage in that country every year. She also noted that Shias, Hazaras and Ahmadiya communities had continued to face persecution, state-condoned violence and discrimination in Pakistan.
Earlier, speaking at the 46th session of the UNHRC, Shireen Mazari, Minister for Human Rights of Pakistan, alleged that India had exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to “accelerate” the “pace of its colonization project” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu too referred to alleged human right violations in Jammu and Kashmir during his speech at the UNHRC and called upon the Government of India to “ease current restrictions” in the Union Territory. He also called for resolution of the issue of J&K as per the UN Security Council’s resolutions.
“As regards the remarks made by Turkey, we find them completely unacceptable. It is ironical for a country which has trampled upon its own civil society to pass unjustified comments on other’s internal matters,” Pujani said, presenting New Delhi’s statement at the UNHRC in response to the remarks made by Cavusoglu. “As far as the subject of UN Resolutions is concerned, we would advise Turkey to practise what it preaches by first implementing those UN Resolutions that apply to it.”