GENEVA – Pakistan Tuesday called on the UN Human Right Council not toremain a “silent bystander” to the gross human rights abuses in the IndianIllegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, saying its failure to hold Indiaaccountable for its actions will only erode the 47-member body’scredibility.
“Silence will incentivize India to commit further repression againstKashmiri civilians,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi said in his remarks to theCouncil on the report of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights MichelleBachelet in which she expressed concerns over New Delhi’s continuedviolation of Kashmiri people’s rights.
“These concerns once again validate the widely documented violations by theglobal media. Independent civil society organizations have also beenalerting the Council to this human rights crisis,” the Pakistani envoy saidabout the High Commissioner’s report which she unveiled on Monday As theHuman Rights Council opened its 45th session.
India’s illegal occupation and its state-sanctioned oppression are enabledby several draconian laws, he said, pointing out that for decades, not asingle member of Indian security forces has been convicted due to theimmunity provided under these laws.
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“India continues to reject any access to independent media, human rightsorganizations or to the OHCHR. Such is the level of impunity and arroganceon full display by the so-called largest democracy of the world.”
“Using COVID as a cover,” Hashmi added, “India has accelerated demographicengineering in the occupied region by giving hundreds of thousands ofKashmiri domicile certificates in the past several weeks to non-Kashmiris.
