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’.
“Our minorities vote, legislate, sit on our highest court and lead our institutions. 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. 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.
“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.
