Pakistan must stop ongoing human rights violations in areas it illegally occupies: India at UN

United Nations: India on Monday condemned Pakistan as “the fountainhead of terror, violence, bigotry, intolerance, and extremism” and called on Islamabad to halt “grave and ongoing human rights violations” in the part of Kashmir it illegally occupies.

“Pakistan is the fountainhead of terror, violence, bigotry, intolerance and extremism,” N K Premachandran, Revolutionary Socialist Party MP from Kerala, told the UN General Assembly committee on decolonisation.

“As recently as April this year, terrorists trained and sponsored by Pakistan murdered 26 innocent civilians in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Premachandran highlighted Pakistan’s harsh repression in the part of Kashmir it occupies, which contravenes Security Council Resolution 47, adopted in April 1948.

“We call upon Pakistan to stop the grave and ongoing human rights violations in the areas illegally occupied by it, where the population is in open revolt against Pakistan’s military occupation, repression, brutality and illegal exploitation of resources,” he said.

“In the last few weeks alone, the occupying Pakistani forces and their proxies have killed many innocent civilians who were agitating for their basic rights and freedoms,” he added.

He cited recent incidents in which more than 12 people were killed by Pakistani forces suppressing protests against exploitation and Islamabad’s malfeasance.

Responding to Pakistan’s comments at the committee last week regarding India and Kashmir, Premachandran said they were irrelevant to the work of the Fourth Committee or its agenda.

“It is ironic that a country which is infamous across the globe for using terrorism as an instrument of state policy has attempted to cast aspersions on the world’s largest democracy,” he said.

He further criticised Pakistan’s record, stating: “A country like Pakistan, with an established record of military dictatorships, sham elections, incarceration of popular elected leaders, religious extremism and state-sponsored terrorism, should in future refrain from preaching homilies at this platform.”

“Jammu and Kashmir is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” Premachandran declared emphatically.

Premachandran also spoke about India’s global leadership in the fight against colonialism. Since India became the first chair of the UN Decolonisation Committee, he said, “New Delhi has been actively contributing towards its functioning.”

“The fight against colonisation has been arduous,” he said. “Since the creation of the United Nations, more than 80 former colonies were able to break free from the shackles of colonialism and gain independence.”

He added that the process is still ongoing: “The process, however, remains unfinished.” According to the UN, 17 countries or territories remain under colonial rule. IANS