Chennai: India slammed Pakistan for misusing international platforms for ‘baseless and malicious propaganda’ against it and said Islamabad would do well to put its own house in order, before venturing to point a finger at New Delhi.
Using its Right of Reply under the High-Level Segment of the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council in response to a statement by Pakistan’s representative, India said it was not surprised that Islamabad’s representative misused the UN forum yet again.
“Pakistan’s continued misuse of various platforms to engage in baseless and malicious propaganda against India is not new,” Second Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, Seema Pujani, said.
She asserted that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an “integral and inalienable part of India”.
“The steps taken by the government to ensure good governance and development in these Union Territories are our internal matters,” Pujani said.
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, the diplomat said.
Highlighting the violence and institutionalised discrimination and persecution faced by Pakistan’s minorities, including Christians, Sikhs and Hindus, she said that there have been frequent attacks on the places of worship of minority communities.
“The condition of women belonging to minority communities, notably Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, remains deplorable. An estimated 1,000 women from minority communities are subjected to abduction followed by forced conversion and forced marriage in Pakistan every year, according to a recent report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,” she said.