At UN, Pakistan hits back at Indian claims, reiterates Kashmir not 'internal matter'

Pakistan firmly rejected on Friday India’s claim at the United Nations (UN) that Jammu and Kashmir is its integral part, saying the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was an internationally recognized disputed territory between the two countries.

“Jammu and Kashmir neither is a so-called ‘integral' part of India nor is it India’s internal matter,” Pakistani representative at the UN Saima Saleem said in response to an Indian delegate's statement, which asserted that by raising the Kashmir dispute in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan had brought in “matters internal to my country.”

Responding to the Indian delegate's claim, the Pakistani representative said: “India remains in occupation of an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final disposition needs to be decided in accordance with the democratic principle of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, as provided for under numerous resolutions of the Security Council.”

The Indian delegate, Sneha Dubey, while exercising her right of reply to PM Imran Khan’s statement, had made sweeping allegations about Pakistan’s alleged involvement in terrorism.

In her remarks, she claimed that Pakistan has a policy of harboring, aiding, and actively supporting terrorists.

Qureshi briefs UNGA president, UN secretary general about India's human rights violations

She also claimed that occupied Kashmir and Ladakh “were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India”.

In response, Saleem said: "As for India’s use of the canard of terrorism, regurgitating stale arguments that are typical of all occupiers.

"Let me emphasize that India itself is the principal perpetrator, sponsor, financier, and abettor of terrorism in the region," she said, adding New Delhi was involved in at least 4 different types of terrorism.

First, India is resorting to “state terrorism” by suppressing the people of IIOJK.

Second, India is funding and supporting terrorist organizations like the TTP which conducts numerous cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistan.

Third, India is financing and organizing mercenary terrorist organizations against Pakistan to impede economic growth and prosperity of the region, the Pakistani representative said, adding that Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had also publicly admitted to this.

Fourth, India is being guided by a supremacist ideology that has mainstreamed Islamophobia and bigotry against minorities, particularly Muslims, she said.

"In today’s incredibly intolerant India, the 200 million-strong Muslim minority faces frequent lynching by ‘cow vigilantes’, pogroms by RSS thugs with official complicity, discriminatory citizenship laws to disenfranchise Muslims, and a concerted campaign to destroy mosques and the rich Muslim heritage of India," Saleem added.

The Pakistani representative said that India’s violations of human rights in IIOJK were well documented in the two reports of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and by other major human rights organizations.

However, she lamented that Indian authorities have failed to respond to their critical reports.

The government of Pakistan, she said, recently released a comprehensive and well-researched Dossier containing the entire range of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of human rights being perpetrated by Indian security forces in the occupied territory.

“We call upon the international community to take cognizance of the compelling evidence and hold India accountable for the heinous crimes.

“If India has nothing to hide, it must accept a UN Commission of Inquiry and agree to implement the Security Council resolutions stipulating a plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination,” the Pakistani delegate added.

“The Indian delegation would do well to reflect on the deeply troubling trajectory their state is embarked upon, rather than indulging in patent falsehoods about Pakistan.”

Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi apprised the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid and United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres of the human rights violations in IIOJK.

FM Qureshi also presented a comprehensive dossier to the secretary-general detailing serious and widespread human rights violations, crimes against humanity and genocide perpetrated by India in IIOJK.

He urged Guterres to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. The FM also called for pressurising India to achieve self-determination for the Kashmiri people