India has used its right of reply in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to respond to Pakistan’s representative.
Hina Rabbani Khar’s criticism of the country’s defence acquisitions, calling it “malicious propaganda” against India.
Speaking at the council, India’s representative Seema Pujani said, “Pakistan’s obsession with India while its population battle for their lives, livelihood and freedom is an indication of the state’s misplaced priorities. I would advise its leadership and officials to focus their energies on working for the benefit of their own population instead of baseless propaganda.”
She also expressed regret over comments made by the Turkish representative and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir.
“We regret the comments made by Turkiye on a matter that is an internal affair of India and advise it to refrain from making unsolicited comments on our internal matters,” Seema Pujani said.
“As regards the OIC statement, we reject the unwarranted references to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The fact is that the entire territories of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and shall always be part of India. Pakistan is in illegal occupation of Indian territory.
Instead of calling upon its member Pakistan to give up state-sponsored terrorism and to lift its occupation of Indian territory, OIC has let Pakistan hijack and misuse its platform for carrying out its nefarious agenda of engaging in malicious propaganda against India,” she added.
Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on Thursday had said “political expediency has condoned the Hindutva regime to dehumanise the Kashmiri people by falsely equating their legitimate pursuit of rights with the canard of terrorism.”
“The Indian occupying authorities have stepped up collective punishment of Kashmiris by demolishing residential homes and terminating land leases to deprive Kashmiris of their livelihoods,” Ms Khar said.