Second Right of Reply by India in response to the Statement made by Pakistan at the 38^th Session of the Human Rights Council (18 June to 06 July, 2018) on Agenda Item 3, delivered by Ms Mini Devi Kumam, Second Secretary [25 June 2018, Geneva] 

Mr. President,

India would like to exercise its second right of reply to Pakistan’s statement.

2. We have already rejected the OHCHR report as it is fallacious, tendentious and motivated piece of disinformation. The entire State of Jammu and Kashmir, including the so called “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” and “Gilgit-Baltistan”, is an integral part of India. Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of the part of the Indian state through aggression.

3. The concerns for human rights are coming from a state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar and that now Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a leader of the UN designated terrorist organization Lashkar-i-Taiba, is getting mainstreamed as a leader of a political party. The people of Jammu & Kashmir have nurtured a vibrant democracy ensuring a life of dignity for all. In contrast, blatant abuses and violations of human rights including killings in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Baluchistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, harassment of minorities through blasphemy law, forceful conversions of minority women, rampant cases of enforced disappearances, systemic persecution of Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras are routinely carried out in Pakistan.

4. Our governments, elected through free and fair elections, are sworn to protecting the Constitution that is the bedrock of all our freedoms. We urge the Council to stop Pakistan from further wasting of the Council’s valuable time to disguise its own abysmal human rights records.

Thank you, Mr. President

****