UN Report On Jammu & Kashmir Biased, Legitimizes Terrorism: India

UN Report On Jammu & Kashmir Biased, Legitimizes Terrorism: India

New Delhi: India on Thursday reiterated its strong criticism of a UN human rights report on Jammu and Kashmir, saying that it accorded “legitimacy to terrorism by ignoring the issue of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and also by trying to create an artificial parity” between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar termed the Update of the Report by the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued on Monday as “a false and motivated narrative on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and in violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. He said the report “ignores” the whole issue of cross-border terrorism. “There was no mention of cross border terrorism”. “We also feel that the report and the Update seem to be an effort to create an artificial parity between the world’s largest and most vibrant democracy (India) and a country that openly practises state-sponsored terrorism,” he added. He said the Update “seems to have accorded legitimacy to terrorism, which is completely in variance with the UNSC position,” adding that in the past the UNSC has proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and other terror groups. The spokesperson said that by publishing and coming out with this report and update “they have undermined their own credibility”. “They have failed to recognise an independent judiciary, human rights institutions and other mechanisms in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that safeguard, protect and promote constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens of India.”

The Update also “belittles constitutional provisions, statutory procedures and established practices in an established functioning democracy”. The spokesperson said the Update “has a prejudiced mindset” and “wilfully ignores the determined socio-economic development efforts which have been undertaken by the government in Jammu and Kashmir”. “The Update is an unacceptable advocacy of the dismemberment of a UN member state. Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of a part of the Indian state, including the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ and ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’, through aggression. We have repeatedly called on Pakistan to vacate these occupied territories,” he added. (IANS)

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