ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday urged the international community to keep a close watch on human rights violation against Indian minorities, lest the collective failure to do so might sleepwalk them to another great tragedy.
“Jugglers with words will not legitimise India’s illegal occupation of Kashmir, nor could the marginalisation of Indian minorities would do it any good. Pakistan would continue to extend political and moral support to the freedom struggle of Kashmiri people, and to call for holding a UN-supervised plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, as per UNSC resolutions, and the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” said a Pakistani diplomat in his right of reply in response to India, during a meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference of Plenipotentiaries on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity.
He pointed out that Pakistan needs no lectures on crimes against humanity from a country that is a serial violator of international law and UN Charter and a perpetrator of atrocity crimes -- in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, against minorities in India, against civilians it targets through sponsorship of cross-border terrorist attacks.
“This is a country that violated the sovereignty of my country by attacking civilians including children sleeping in their homes, by not implementing Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, by blinding Kashmiri children with pellet guns, by suspending and violating the Indus Waters Treaty, a treaty that contains no provision to suspend it unilaterally, and the list goes on and on,” he added.
India, he pointed out, is a country that is colluding with terrorist organisations to sow seeds of subversion and chaos against its neighbours and running international assassination campaigns against political dissidents with impunity.
“Due to an unholy nexus between extremist Hindutva ideology and ruling elite, Indian minorities, particularly Muslims, are facing an imminent threat of ghettoization. Only last month during Christmas, children engaged in carol singing were attacked by extremist mob in Kerala while a visually challenged woman celebrating Christmas was roughed up in the Indian state of Madhiya Pradesh,” he said.
“Right of self-determination is the birthright of Kashmiris as per UN Charter — a right which India solemnly promised to the Kashmiris and is yet stubbornly denying it in flagrant violation of UNSC resolution,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, speaking on “For the Global Water Bankruptcy Policy Roundtable”, in a reminder pointed out that for more than six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 has provided a time-tested framework for equitable and predictable management of the waters of Indus River basin.
“India’s unilateral decision to hold the treaty in abeyance last year in April, followed by material breaches, including unannounced disruptions of downstream flows and withholding of hydrological information, has created an unprecedented crisis for Pakistan’s water security and for regional stability. This is not nature’s doing. This is a nation state deliberately weaponising water. Pakistan’s position is unequivocal; the treaty remains legally intact and permits no unilateral suspension or modification,” clarified the ambassador.
