Pakistan has demanded UN intervention in India-held Kashmir through the deployment of a fact-finding mission in the region during a United Nations meeting where the two countries clashed over the disputed territory.
India leveled allegations of cross-border terrorism in the high-up meeting of the UNHCR while Federal Minister for law and justice, Zahid Hamid, asked that the UN send a fact-finding mission to the region to investigate the ongoing transgressions of the Indian occupying forces.
Tensions rose during the meeting in which the federal minister dismissed the claims of the Indian delegation saying “The Indian claim that the deteriorating human rights situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir was an internal affair was factually incorrect.” He went on to appeal to the international community saying “The situation in Jammu and Kashmir required the immediate attention of the Council, and a team from the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights should visit the area.” The Pakistani delegation also tried to bring up a humanitarian argument saying “Atrocities committed by over 700,000 Indian security personnel have turned Jammu and Kashmir into a valley of grief and sorrow.”
The blows traded by the two neighbouring countries did not end there however after Indian Ambassador to the United Nations Ajit Kumar put the blame for the conflict on Pakistan saying the state was carrying out cross-border terrorism. He also maintained that Pakistan had been illegally occupying Indian territory and using state sanctioned terrorism as a tool to control their own people. He went on to say “Pakistan should put its own house in order instead of pointing out alleged human rights violations elsewhere.”
Kumar also made an appeal to the UN over the supposed intervention of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Kashmir saying the OIC should mind its own business. He also made an effort to direct the attention of the meeting away from the Kashmir issue and towards what he claimed were human rights abuses in Pakistan.
The Pakistani envoy also responded, however, saying that India was simply trying to hide their human rights record in Kashmir, especially their dependence upon using pellet guns which blinded hundreds of people and killed many others.
Responding to the Indian ambassador’s remarks regarding Pakistan’s issues in Balochistan, the Pakistani envoy made sure to clear the air by asserting that Balochistan was a part of Pakistan while Kashmir was recognised as an internationally disputed area backed by numerous UN resolutions.
