India on Tuesday expressed its disappointment after the new United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, raised the Jammu and Kashmir conflict in a statement at the United Nation Human Rights Council, IANS reported.

The council is currently holding meetings over a three-week session in Geneva, Switzerland. On Monday, Bachelet said a human rights report in June, released by her predecessor Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, detailing alleged violations on both sides of the Line of Control, was not followed up.

Rajiv K Chander, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, expressed his disappointment that the matter was brought up. “We regret that reference has been made to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. “Our views on the matter have been made abundantly clear in the council.” He added that human rights issues should be constructively handled and with regard to national integrity and territorial integrity in a fair and credible manner.

Pakistan on Tuesday said that it shared Bachelet’s “anguish” over Kashmir and lent its support to her demand for implementing the report’s recommendations.

Responding to the comments, First Secretary Mini Devi Kumam in a statement on Wednesday said India rejected Pakistan’s “futile efforts to rake up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, including through repeated references to the motivated and fallacious report” rejected by India. “The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India,” she said.

The biggest challenge facing the state was “unrelenting” cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, said Kumam, questioning its “dismal” human rights record. India rejected the reference to Jammu and Kashmir made by Pakistan on behalf of the 53-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, saying it has “no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India”.

Chander described terrorism as “the biggest scourge and greatest violator of human rights”. “We hope that you will address it more emphatically in the coming years,” he said.

However, Hurriyat Conference chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani welcomed Bachelet’s remarks, reported Greater Kashmir. He also demanded a high-level probe by “authentic” bodies under the auspices of the UN into the “heinous war crimes committed by the forces in Jammu and Kashmir”.