UNITED NATIONS: A Pakistani diplomat Wednesday rejected Indian accusations about Pakistan allegedly killing Afghan civilians recently, saying it was in fact India which carried out state terrorism against Pakistan.
“India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan is not abstract; it has a human cost,” Saima Saleem, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, told the Security Council during a debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict.
The Pakistani delegate was exercising his right of reply to India’s UN Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, who also accused Pakistan of ‘genocide’ in 1971.
The Indian envoy was reacting to a statement made earlier in day by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, who highlighted the suffering and abuses of the Kashmiri women and girls at the hands of Indian military in occupied Kashmir.
In her remarks, Ms. Saleem, the Pakistani delegate, said, “Today, India once again came to this Council wearing the mask of a victim — but the world can see the face behind that mask. It is the face of a State that exports terrorism abroad, occupies people by force, persecutes minorities at home, weaponizes water, commits aggression in the region, and then tries to lecture others on the protection of civilians.
India’s terrorist proxies — including the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade — have killed thousands of civilians, including women and children in our mosques, markets, schools and streets, through networks financed, facilitated and operated from Afghan soil.”
With regard to Afghanistan, she said Pakistan carried out precise, deliberate and professional counter-terrorism operations against terrorist hideouts, training camps, ammunition storage sites, and support networks used to plan and launch attacks against Pakistani civilians, security forces and infrastructure.
“These operations were directed solely against terrorist and their infrastructure, not against the brotherly people of Afghanistan or civilian facilities,” Ms. Saleem said allegations advanced by the Taliban regime and echoed by their Indian patrons were part of a disinformation campaign to hide their crimes. “We can sense India’s disappointment, as its investments in the use of Afghan terrorist franchise against Pakistan are going to waste due to our effective counter-terrorism operations.”
In occupied Jammu and Kashmir — an internationally recognized dispute — Ms. Saleem said civilians are killed, detained, dispossessed and silenced; homes are demolished, freedoms are crushed, and an entire people are denied their right to self-determination, the Pakistani delegate said.
“Under state-sponsored Hindutva extremism, Islamophobia has been normalized as policy, hate speech rewarded in politics, mob violence met with impunity, and discrimination turned into a daily reality for Muslims and other minorities, including Sikhs, Dalits and Christians.”
“India’s disregard for international law is also evident in holding of the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance,” the Pakistani delegate said, adding, “. A State that threatens the water, food security and livelihoods of millions of Pakistanis cannot certainly speak of civilian protection.”
Pakistan, she said, stands for peace, dialogue, peaceful settlement of disputes and adherence to international law. “India stands exposed by terrorism, occupation, aggression, repression and disregard for international law.”
Earlier, Asim Ahmad, the Pakistani ambassador, said in situations of foreign occupation in particular, civilians live under prolonged denial of rights, dignity and self-determination. “Occupation does not suspend international law; it in fact heightens the obligations of the occupying power.”
In Palestine, he said the immense suffering of civilians necessitates unhindered humanitarian access, accountability, and realization of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and statehood.
In the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), a dispute that continues to be on the agenda of this Council for more than seven decades, the Pakistani envoy civilians continue to suffer under foreign occupation, massive militarization, arbitrary detentions, restrictions on fundamental freedoms, demographic engineering, and denial of their internationally recognized right to self-determination. –Agencies
