'Torture, Violence, Detentions': India Reminds Pak of Rights Record as it Raises Kashmir at UNHRC

India castigated Pakistan on Monday for raising the issue of Kashmir at the United National Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

First Secretary of India's Permanent Mission, Geneva, Senthil Kumar, exercised his Right of Reply at the 43rd session of the UNHRC, to reply to the statement Pakistan made on Kashmir.

"It’s unfortunate that Pakistan continues to maintain its track record of misuse of the Human Rights Council and its mechanism. It's a matter of serious concern that Pakistan being the only country in South Asia of effecting a state-sponsored genocide would have the audacity to accuse others of it," he said.

Kumar said it was dangerous that Pakistan attempts to destabilise the well-established of the council, to pursue its "narrow political agenda" against India.

Before giving advice to anybody, Pakistan should first look at its own human rights track record, Kumar said.

"It's questionable that a country of serious credibility issues would talk about human rights and self-determination. This country emerged out of religious fundamentalism and bloodshed and its history rigged with assassinations, coups and puppets running," he said.

"Enforced disappearances, state violence and forced mass displacements, harassment, extrajudicial killings, army operations, torture, kill-and-dumps, torture camps, detention centres, military camps are regular features in Baluchistan," he pointed out.

He drew further attention to Pakistan's track record of human rights, saying - "Nobody knows the fate of missing 47,000 Baloch and 35,000 Pashtuns till date. Sectarian violence has claimed more than 500 Hazaras in Baluchistan and more than 100,000 Hazaras have fled Pakistan."

According to Kumar, India's move to revoke Article 370 of the state of Jammu and Kashmir does not have external ramifications.

"Systemic misuse of Blasphemy in Pakistan has terrorized the minorities in Pakistan. The recent fate of two Hindu girls in Sindh, one Christian girl in Lahore, one Ahmadi lady in Chaleki, two professors from Khairpur are the examples of systemic targeting of minorities through blasphemy laws. The state of Pakistan is well manifested in the impunity in the murder of 65 transgenders in Pakistan since 2015," Kumar said.