September 13, 2019
‘Terror epicentre’ Pak speaking on human rights ‘audacious’: India on UNHRC clash.
After the big India-Pakistan face-off at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that the global community is aware of Islamabad’s role in aiding terrorist infrastructure in the country.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that it was quite audacious on part of Pakistan, “the epicentre of terrorism”, to pretend to speak on behalf of the global community on human rights.
Further attacking Pakistan, Kumar said the neighbouring needs to understand that repeating a lie does not turn it into gospel truth.
At 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, Pakistan raked up the issue after failing to garner support even from its staunch allies on J-K.
In his address at the UNHRC session, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said that Jammu and Kashmir had been converted into the “largest prison” with people being denied access to basic amenities following the abrogation of Article 370.
Pakistan further asked the Council to conduct an international investigation, urging the world rights body not to remain “indifferent” over India’s move on Kashmir.
However, the Indian delegation led by Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vijay Thakur Singh, effectively rebutted Pakistan’s allegations on human rights violations in Kashmir.
India said there was a need to call out those who are “misusing” the United Nations Human Rights Council platform for “malicious political agenda under the garb of human rights.”
In a strong rebuttal, India said: “This fabricated narrative comes from the epicentre of global terrorism, where ringleaders were sheltered for years.”
Meanwhile, a high-level Indian delegation led by MEA Secretary (East) Vijay Thakur Singh will hold a meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet today to brief her about the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Further, speaking on the situation in the Valley, the MEA spokesperson reiterated the government stand that 92 per cent of Jammu and Kashmir is free of restrictions.
“There is no shortage of medicines in the state. 95 per cent of healthcare professionals are on duty. Banking facilities are operating normally,” Kumar added.
On reports of Pakistan denying India a second consular access to jailed Kulbhushan Jadhav, Raveesh Kumar said that India will keep trying to see that the ICJ judgement is fully implemented, adding that New Delhi will remain in touch with the Pakistani side through diplomatic channels.
Pakistan has reportedly ruled out a second consular access to Indian national and former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Islamabad over allegations of spying and terrorism.
This comes over two weeks after India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, Gaurav Ahluwalia on September 2 met Jadhav after Pakistan granted consular access to the Indian national in line with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order on July 17.
However, New Delhi was not impressed with the whole exercise and claimed that Jadhav appeared “under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to Pakistan’s untenable claims”.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) had on July 17 ordered Pakistan not to execute Kulbhushan Jadhav and directed “effective review and reconsideration” of his conviction and the sentence awarded to him by a military court.
It further directed Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav “without further delay”, while holding that it had “breached” the Vienna Convention in this regard by denying him this right.