Right of Reply by India under Agenda Item 3 : ID with the Working Group on
arbitrary detention and ID with WG on enforced or involuntary disappearance at the 45th Session of the Human Rights Council(14 September – 07 October 2020) delivered by Mr. S. Senthil Kumar, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India (Geneva, 21 September 2020)
Mr. Vice-President,
Yet again, though we are not surprised, Pakistan has twice chosen to divert the attention of the Council with its imposturous political propaganda full of disinformation and gratuitous references about India’s internal matters today. It will be better for Pakistan to set its own house in order before it speaks about others.
Mr. Vice-President,
2. Just twelve days ago the OHCHR in its press briefing expressed serious concern about the numerous instances of incitement to violence – online and offline – against journalists and human rights defenders in Pakistan, in particular against women and minorities. Especially worrying are accusations of blasphemy – which can put accused individuals at imminent risk of violence.
3. A week before that the Special Procedures of the HRC had called on the Pakistani authorities to end the secret detention of human rights defender Idris Khattak, whose whereabouts are not known for more than nine months. Talia, the 20-year-old daughter of Idris Khattak, is still waiting for a fair trial for her father. Last week we saw serious concerns being expressed in this room at the large number of enforced disappearances in Pakistan.
Mr. Vice-President,
4. Human Rights Defenders in Pakistan are being silenced everyday through intimidation, secret detention, torture and enforced disappearances with the direct involvement of the Pakistani Government. Targeting of journalists through threats, assaults, arrests instilling extreme fear and self-censorship exposes the fallacy of Pakistan’s so-called military-run ‘democratic’ system.
5. Very recently we saw Marvi Sirmed, a woman journalist and human rights defender receiving highly derogatory and violent messages on social media. Journalists Ahmed Noorani and Gul Bhukari and their families have been receiving death threats daily and live in an atmosphere of constant fear and terror. Abductions continue often of not only journalists and human rights defenders, but also of under-aged Hindu and Christian girls.
6. Law enforcement agencies, in Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, have been given a free hand and are authorized to arbitrarily detain any person, including those below the age of 18 years. Cries of Baloch sister Haseeba Qambrani for her brothers Hasaan and Hizbullah Qambrani, who have been forcibly taken away by the Pakistan military go unheard.
7. Security forces in Pakistan have gained proficiency in unlawful killings and kidnapping of people in so called counter-terrorism operations. This has been compounded by a weak judiciary in Pakistan which has consistently failed to protect even the basic human rights of the people in Pakistan.
8. This, Mr. Vice-President, is the plight of daughters, sisters and mothers in Pakistan. They say in Imran Khan’s Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan) – you may not return home.
Mr. Vice-President,
9. Let me turn to Pakistan Occupied parts of Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Cases of enforced disappearances, murders, detentions, custodial deaths and torture of civil rights activists, representatives of local political parties and journalists are common and a standard practice adopted to silence voices against the Government and deep state in Gilgit-Baltistan. It’s well documented that a large number of Kashmiri detainees are in secret detention facilities in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Territories now for several years and they have been severely tortured by the security forces.
10. Given the time constraint, we have been able to highlight only a few of the most urgent cases of human rights violations in Pakistan and its occupied Territories. India strongly urges the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to take note of these and other similar cases.
I thank you, Mr. Vice-President.
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