Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi tore into Pakistan at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday over its remarks on Kashmir and minorities in India and called out Islamabad for illegally occupying parts of J&K and demanded it to be ‘vacated’.
The irony will not be lost on this Council,” Tyagi added. “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. He accused Pakistan of counting a place of worship as an evidence of crime. “Our minorities vote, legislate, sit on our highest court and lead our institutions. He added that Pakistan’s Hindu, Sikh and Christian populations 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,” he stated. “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. 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 noted. Dehimat also referred to the cases of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leaders Dr Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Shah, claiming that they were serving life sentences following proceedings that had raised concerns over due process.
Sharpening the attack on Pakistan, the Indian diplomat that Kashmiri Pandits were driven from their homes in 1990 by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
The only part of Jammu and Kashmir under foreign occupation is the part Pakistan holds, which we again call upon it to vacate,” Tyagi said in scathing response to Pakistan’s remarks. “That is how Pakistan sees the faith of others, and its own minorities live with the consequences,” Tyagi said as he noted that India is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. “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. Referring to Dr Baloch’s concerns, Dehimat said she feared that she could be arrested, forcibly disappeared or killed for speaking about the situation of the Baloch people. She said five of her colleagues were already in prison for peacefully raising concerns over human rights violations.
Concerns over the human rights situation in Pakistan, including alleged enforced disappearances in Balochistan and attacks against religious minorities, resonated at the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. During the General Debate under Agenda Item 4, Diana Stephanie Dehimat made an urgent appeal concerning Dr Sabiha Baloch, who is associated with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), news agency ANI reported.
He also drew attention to Pakistan’s economic situation and said that 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.” he noted.
