Geneva: India on Tuesday tore apart Pakistan terming the country as an “epicenter of terrorism” and said that no one deserved unsolicited lecture on human rights from Islamabad that has been over a period of time persecuted its ethnic and religious minorities including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.
Using the Right of Reply to the statements made by Pakistan at the 45th session of Human Rights Council (HRC), the Indian diplomat said, ” Neither India nor others deserve this unsolicited lecture on human rights from a country that has consistently persecuted its ethnic and religious minorities, is an epicenter of terrorism, has the distinction of providing pensions to individuals on UN Sanctions list and has a Prime Minister who proudly admits training tens of thousands of terrorists to fight in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Highlighting the nefarious designs of Pakistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the diplomat said, “the mass influx of outsiders has whittled down the number of Kashmiris to an insignificant number in Pakistan occupied parts of Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.”
“In its zeal to reassert its theocratic ideology, it has ensured that ethnic and religious minorities have no future through systematic persecution, blasphemy laws, forced conversions, targeted killings, sectarian violence and faith-based discrimination,” the diplomat said.
“Thousands of Sikh, Hindus and Christian minority women and girls have been subjected to abductions, forced marriages and conversions in Pakistan.”
Pointing out on the plight of people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, the Indian diplomat said, “Not a single day has gone by when a family in Balochistan doesn’t find its members picked up or kidnapped by the security forces of Pakistan.”
“Pakistan does well when it comes to intimidation and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and political dissidents in particular by its state machinery. It is not without a reason that Pakistan has been highlighted by international organizations as a country where journalists are slain and their killers go scot free,” the diplomat said.
