UN Kashmir report: Pakistan says it is willing to give inquiry team access if India does the same
Pakistan’s Foreign Office claimed India is isolated in the international community after the report alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan on Thursday said it was ready to facilitate a Commission of Inquiry to visit Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as proposed by the United Nations in its report on alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, PTI reported. The report was released last week.
Pakistan would be willing if India allows the UN similar access to Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said. “India must not shy away from this international obligation if it has nothing to hide,” he said.
Faisal claimed that India stands isolated in the international community after the report alleged that Indian security forces had committed human rights violations in Kashmir. “The isolation of India in the international community is complete,” The Express Tribune quoted Faisal as saying. “The skeletons in Indian closet are growing in numbers and size. Right-wing governments end up paying a high price.”
Faisal said that Pakistan was “closely monitoring the developments” in Jammu and Kashmir, in a reference to the imposition of Governor’s rule in the state. He said Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed area, pending on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
“The dissociation of India from reality is alarming,” Faisal said. “Indian attempts to exploit and cash in on the international environment by labelling the legitimate Kashmiris struggle terrorism makes a mockery of the victims of actual terrorism and is reprehensible.”
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its first report on the situation in Kashmir, detailed alleged human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control. On Tuesday, India urged the UN to reject the report, saying it “undermines the UN-led consensus on terrorism and legitimises terrorism by referring to UN designated terrorist entities as ‘armed groups’.”