New Delhi: India has rejected "factually incorrect and unwarranted references" to Jammu and Kashmir made by a grouping of Islamic nations, using its Right of Reply at UN Human Rights Council. Accusing Pakistan of "peddling malicious propaganda", India said Islamabad is "well-advised to put its own house in order".
Yesterday, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation or OIC, with 57 member states including Pakistan, had alleged "illegal unilateral action to change the status of Kashmir" in the Rights Council and accused India of trying to make demographic changes in Kashmir. In a separate statement, Pakistan had alleged "human rights abuses" and "physical and digital iron curtain" in Jammu and Kashmir.
India said it rejects "factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India in the statement by OIC". "We regret that the OIC countries with whom we have close ties, have failed in preventing Pakistan from misusing OIC platform to push anti-India propaganda," India said.
"Pakistan has an abysmal record on promotion and protection of human rights of its people. Its shameful history of committing genocide in what was then East Pakistan and what is now Bangladesh, over 50 years back, is well known and needs no reiteration," India said.
"Pakistan has one of the worst records in ensuring the right to freedom of religion or belief for its minorities... Extrajudicial abductions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and tortures have been used by Pakistan as tools of State Policy to target human rights defenders, political activists, students, and journalists and to crush dissent. People in regions such as Balochistan have suffered political and other repression and persecution for decades," India added in its reply.
Pakistan has made multiple attempts to flag Jammu and Kashmir at the international forum since special status of Jammu and Kashmir was ended and it was bifurcated into two Union Territories. Much of it was done with OIC, which has been issuing statements slamming India.
Last month, on the third anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir's bifurcation, the OIC had accused India of "illegal unilateral action" and called on the international community to take steps to resolve the "dispute" through relevant UN resolutions.
"August 5, 2022 marks the third anniversary of the illegal and unilateral actions taken in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which were followed by additional unlawful measures including illegal demographic changes," OIC had also tweeted.
India said the statement "reeks of bigotry".
In May, pointing to the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir, OIC had released another statement expressing "concern" over India's attempts to redraw the electoral boundaries", alleging it is a violation of the rights of the Kashmiri people.
"The OIC should refrain from carrying out its communal agenda vis-a-vis India at the behest of one country," New Delhi had said in an oblique reference to Pakistan.