Pakistan providing pension to terrorists, must be held accountable: India
Pakistan providing pension to terrorists, must be held accountable: India
M.U.H
23/06/2021992
Pakistan continues to provide pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists and hosts them on its territory as its state policy, India said on Tuesday. It also said that the neighbouring country should be held "accountable for aiding and abetting terrorism".
The remarks were made by Pawankumar Badhe, first Secretary, Indian Permanent Mission in Geneva at the 47th Session of the United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC). Exercising India's right to reply following Pakistan's remarks, Badhe highlighted the systematic persecution of minorities in Pakistan through draconian blasphemy laws, forced conversions and marriages and extrajudicial killings.
"The scourge of terrorism is the gravest violation of human rights and must be dealt with in strongest terms in all its forms and manifestations," he said.
The remarks came after Khalil Hashmi, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN in Geneva, tried to raise the Kashmir issue at the interactive dialogue on the annual report of the high commissioner.
Badhe accused Islamabad of distracting the Council's attention from the "deplorable human rights situation in Pakistan".
"Forced conversions have become a daily phenomenon in Pakistan. We have seen reports of minor girls belonging to religious minorities being abducted, raped, forcibly converted and married. More than 1,000 girls, belonging to religious minorities, are forcibly converted in Pakistan every year," the Indian official said.
"Journalists are threatened, intimidated, taken off air, kidnapped and in some cases killed, mainly to silence critics of the Establishment. While families of victims continue to struggle for justice, the perpetrators of these acts have enjoyed complete impunity," Badhe added.
This comes days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan sought the intervention of the US to settle the Kashmir issue with India, during an interview with the news programme Axios on HBO.
Khan acknowledged he hasn’t spoken to US President Joe Biden since the latter assumed office in January and said he would raise the issue of Kashmir if there was a meeting between the two leaders.
In the past, India has ruled out intervention or mediation on the Kashmir issue by any third party. New Delhi has also maintained that the region is an integral part of India, in the wake of statements from Islamabad opposing any possible changes in Jammu and Kashmir. India said such moves amounted to interference in the country’s internal matters.