India reacts sharply to UNHCHR’s comments on J&K

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) India today reacted sharply toremarks by the United Nations High Commissioner for HumanRights (UNHCHR) on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, sayingterrorism is the "grossest violation" of human rights andshould be so acknowledged by any impartial and objectiveobserver. It also asserted that the unrest in the Valley has been"aggravated by sustained cross-border terrorism emanating fromPakistan". Maintaining that the UNHCHR has received conflictingnarratives on the cause for the confrontations in the Valley,External Affairs Ministry said there is no comparison betweenthe situation in the Indian state of J&K and Pakistan-occupiedKashmir. "The former has a democratically elected Government, whilethe latter has seen a Pakistani diplomat arbitrarily appointedas its head," it said reacting to UN High Commissioner onHuman Rights’ suggestion asking India and Pakistan to grant it"unconditional access" to both sides on the Line of Control toestablish an "objective assessment" of the situation inKashmir. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also said Pakistan has alreadyhanded over a letter formally inviting a team to the Pakistaniside of the line of control, but in tandem with a mission tothe Indian side. In a statement, the MEA said the present situation arosefrom the death of a self-acknowledged commander of theterrorist organization, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, who was wanted forseveral terrorist acts. "It was further aggravated by sustained cross-borderterrorism emanating from Pakistan. Terrorism is the grossestviolation of human rights and should be so acknowledged by anyimpartial and objective observer. The high number ofcasualties sustained by Indian security forces is a reflectionof the tremendous restraint they have displayed in difficultcircumstance," it said. The ministry said the issue of an external mission wasconsidered by the All-Party Conference on August 12, 2016 todiscuss the situation in J&K. "It was unanimously felt that Indian democracy has allthat is required to address legitimate grievances.Accordingly, an all-party delegation visited Srinagar. Despitecross-border terrorist infiltration that saw an encounter onlyyesterday, the government remains fully engaged in normalizingthe situation as soon as possible," it said. India hopes that the connection between terrorism andviolation of human rights would be recognized and deliberatedupon in Geneva, the ministry added. The 33rd session of theHuman Rights Council got underway in Geneva today. In his opening statement at the meet, Hussein said,"We hadpreviously received reports, and still continue to do so,claiming the Indian authorities had used force excessivelyagainst the civilian population under its administration. Wefurthermore received conflicting narratives from the two sidesas to the cause for the confrontations and the reported largenumbers of people killed and wounded. "I believe an independent, impartial and internationalmission is now needed crucially and that it should be givenfree and complete access to establish an objective assessmentof the claims made by the two sides." PTI PYK SKSK