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Thursday March 28, 2024

UN disturbed by Indian human rights violations in IHK

By Mariana Baabar
July 19, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday gave its full support to the United Nations’ report on Kashmir, after India had dismissed this first time the factual and extensive report on IHK, saying it was “Pakistan authored” and a “nefarious conspiracy “ against India.”

The UN has said that it was disturbed by the sustained attempts to distract and divert the focus away from the human rights violations on both sides of the Line of Control.

“We are disappointed on New Delhi’s dismissal of grave human rights violations in IHK. The report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had quoted Indian sources including their Parliament, Supreme Court and Ministry of External Affairs.

“India failed to address the very serious concerns raised by OHCHR in Kashmir report about the grave human rights situation in IHK,” spokesman at the Foreign Office said in early morning Tweets.

Earlier, the OHCHR had also found fault with the rejection of its report by India saying, “The report was developed through remote monitoring. Since the report was published, we have been deeply disappointed by the reaction of the Indian authorities, who dismissed the report as fallacious, tendentious and motivated without examining it and responding to the very serious concerns about the human rights situation.”

Another allegation by India outrightly rejected by the OHCHR was related to an alleged Pakistani –Canadian citizen Zafar Bangash who New Delhi claimed had been in touch with the UN High Commissioner when the UN report was being compiled.

“This is totally untrue. The High Commissioner has never spoken with Bangash, and we are not aware of receiving any information from him, let alone using it, although it is possible he sent an email or letter and received a polite acknowledgment, as is the case with thousands of letters and emails sent to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights”.

Though Pakistan has for decades exposed the abuse of consistent human rights in IHK and the neutral report from the UN had commented, “The killing of civilians between 2016 and 2018 raises the question of whether security forces resorted to excessive use of force to respond to protesters, some of whom were throwing rocks. International human rights groups have accused Indian security forces of using excessive force and failing to adhere to applicable national and international standards on the use of force.”

The use of Pellet guns by Indian security forces which blinded hundreds of Kashmiris including children and women was pointed out by the UN report, “One of the most dangerous weapons used against protesters during the unrest in 2016 was the pellet firing shotgun, which is a 12-gauge pump action shotgun that fires metal pellets. It was deployed by the Central Reserve Police Force and the Jammu and Kashmir Police against protesters, some of whom were throwing stones.”