Pakistan has once again found itself exposed over its double standards on issues such as terrorism, religious freedom and minority rights, with India’s reminder to the international community for the umpteenth time – with showing solid evidence – why Pakistan has no moral authority whatsoever to comment on India’s Jammu and Kashmir and domestic matters.
Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN, who along with other top Indian diplomats participated in an interactive dialogue with the special rapporteur on ‘Freedom of Religion and Belief’ linked to funeral rights in exceptional circumstances, presented irrefutable evidence and facts about how Pakistan refused to accept the bodies of its soldiers who were killed in action during the Kargil War in 1999.
“Pakistan’s deep obsession with what is happening in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir should be actually directed at the developments that are underway in the parts of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation, such as Rawalakot. In Pakistan, a number of minorities are shrinking, their rights regularly abused. “Burial rights for terrorists are being justified by indicating that states may restrict funeral rights of terrorists, but only within legal limits. Legal limits should be determined in accordance with the principles of sovereign rights.
“It’s deeply ironic that a state that did not even accept the bodies of its own soldiers who were killed in combat in 1999 in Kargil unabashedly speaks with fervour on faith, religious freedom and burials. “Chair, as per the report, all discrimination and wrong practices during COVID-19 supposedly took place only in the Global South.
Let me remind them, it was the Indian Army who buried a number of Pakistani soldiers with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rites,” Mangalanandan said, highlighting the absence of many relevant facts from the special rapporteur’s report. A state that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no standing to lecture India,” she said. What benefit does the report derive by not mentioning similar tragic situations in the developed world?” she said, adding that deriving political mileage out of people’s pain and loss should not be a topic that special rapporteurs should base their relevance on.
Earlier this week, India had also pointed out glaring factual inaccuracies in a report by a special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights at the UN and called for accountability for presenting lies that can harm the global body.
