Just days after India concluded its ‘Operation Dost’, an initiative to help Turkey in rescue and relief operations after deadly earthquakes, the quake-hit country seemed to betrayed its ‘dost’ by raking up the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Not only this, the country even slammed India and backed Pakistan.
India silences Turkey
Exercising its right of reply at the High-Level Segment of 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, Seema Pujani, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, dismissed the reference to the statement made by Turkey and the OIC representative.
“As regards the OIC statement, we reject the unwarranted references to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Turkey must to refrain from making unsolicited comments on our internal matters,” Pujani said in a statement on Friday.
India slams Pakistan
India also highlighted the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan, including the Ahmadiya community, Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs. Seema Pujani slammed Pakistan for its “cruel policy” of enforced disappearances, which has affected people in Balochistan province, among other places.
Highlighting the plight of the Ahmadiya community, she said, “the Ahmadiya community continues to be persecuted by the state for simply practising their faith. To even obtain a Pakistani passport, the community has to denounce its founder.”
She also noted that the treatment meted out to the Christian community in Pakistan is equally deplorable. “It is frequently targeted through draconian blasphemy laws. State institutions officially reserve ‘sanitation’ jobs for Christians. Underage girls from the community are converted to Islam abetted by a predatory state and an apathetic judiciary,” the Indian statement read.
Indian has time and again slammed Pakistan for supporting terror outfits. Pujani said Pakistan’s “security agencies have nurtured and sheltered Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar for decades” and “Osama bin Laden lived next to Pakistan’s premier military academy.”
Notably, India launched Operation Dost, a search and rescue operation, to aid Syria and Turkey after the deadly earthquakes which killed more than 55,000 people and left thousands others injured and displaced.
