New Delhi: India has used its right of reply at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to respond to Pakistan on issues of religious minorities and terrorism. “No religious minority can freely live or practice its religion in Pakistan today. The Ahmadiya community continues to be persecuted by the state for simply practising their faith… Pakistan’s policies are directly responsible for the death of thousands of civilians around the world,” India’s representative Seema Pujani slammed her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar.
Khar on Thursday had said, “Political expediency has condoned the Hindutva regime to dehumanise the Kashmiri people by falsely equating their legitimate pursuit of rights with the canard of terrorism.”
“The Indian occupying authorities have stepped up collective punishment of Kashmiris by demolishing residential homes and terminating land leases to deprive Kashmiris of their livelihoods,” she said.
In reply, Pujani, said, “In the last decade, Pakistan’s own Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has received 8,463 complaints. The Baloch people have borne the brunt of this cruel policy. Students, doctors, engineers, teachers and community leaders are regularly disappeared by the state.”
“Equally worse is the treatment of the Christian community. It is frequently targeted through draconian blasphemy laws. State institutions officially reserve ‘sanitation’ jobs for Christians,” India added.
India further said that “underage girls from the community are converted to Islam abetted by a predatory state and an apathetic judiciary. Hindu and Sikh communities face similar issues of frequent attack on their places of worship and forced conversion of their underage girls”.
Khar had also expressed her concerns that the “generous” supply of both conventional and non-conventional weaponry to India was seriously undermining South Asia’s strategic stability and jeopardising Pakistan’s “national security”.
India, in right of reply, said, “Pakistan representative has once again chosen to misuse august forum for its malicious propaganda against India.”
Pujani said that Islamabad is obsessed with India at a time when its citizens battle for their lives, livelihood and freedom. Calling it misplaced priorities, the Indian representative asked the Pakistani leadership to focus its energy on working for its own population instead of engaging in baseless propaganda.
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