NEW DELHI: India has criticised UN rights experts for voicing concernsabout its 2019 decision to end the autonomy of occupied Jammu and Kashmirin a violation of bilateral agreements with Pakistan and UNSC resolutions.
A statementlinkreleasedby the two special rapporteurs on minority issues and freedom of religionor belief on Thursday called into question their neutrality andobjectivity, Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.
In their statement, the special rapporteurs said a decision by the Indiangovernment last year to end the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir and enact newlaws could curtail the political participation of Muslims.
Muslims and other minority groups also stood to lose on issues such asemployment and land ownership, they said.
Srivastava insisted Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and thechanges made in its status were enacted by parliament. One of the changeswas that laws in force in the rest of India would apply to the people ofKashmir, allowing them the same legal rights as the rest of India, he said.
“This press release calls into question the larger principles ofobjectivity and neutrality that the SRs [special rapporteurs] are mandatedby the Human Rights Council to adhere to,” Srivastava said in a statement.
He said the special rapporteurs’ statement was released as India hostedinternational diplomats in Kashmir. Officials said the visit was intendedto showcase efforts to restore normalcy a year after the region wasstripped of its special status.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has said it revoked Kashmir’sspecial status to try to fully integrate the region with the rest of Indiaand open it up for faster economic growth.
In new violence in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Friday, unidentifiedindividuals killed three policemen in two separate attacks in the main cityof Srinagar, hours after security forces killed three freedom fighters in araid in a village south of the region, police chief Vijay Kumar said.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in the uprising against NewDelhi’s rule in held Kashmir that began in 1989, according to thegovernment’s toll. Others put the toll at over 100,000.
Pakistan disputes Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and has twice gone to warwith India over the territory.
