New Delhi: During the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council, India strongly criticised Pakistan for using the platform to level baseless accusations against New Delhi. Furthermore, India emphasised its ongoing concerns regarding human rights violations against minority communities in the neighbouring country.
Speaking on behalf of India, PR Thulasidhass, Under Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations Human Rights Council, raised concerns about the recent attack on the Christian community in Pakistan.
India said, “Pakistan has failed miserably in protecting the rights of its ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyas, and Shia Muslims, who are systematically persecuted on a daily basis and deprived of their human rights, especially their freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and right to life.”
The statement from India added, “In contrast to the empty rhetoric delivered by the Pakistan delegation in the Council, only last week, nearly 75 graves and minarets of two worship places belonging to the Ahmadiya community were demolished by the Pakistan police and radicalists in Punjab province. Tension still grips Daska city as the radicalists threaten to raze the minarets of a historic worship place of this community that was declared non-Muslim by the Pakistani Parliament in 1974.”
PR Thulasidhass informed the Council that in August this year, over 19 churches were gutted and 89 Christian houses burned down in broad daylight in Jaranwala in Pakistan’s Faisalabad district by vigilante mobs on allegations of blasphemy.
“In the face of the Human Rights Committee’s recommendations to repeal or amend its blasphemy laws, which carry a potential death sentence and have been misused to target minorities, Pakistan recently enhanced minimum punishment for those who insult revered personalities from three to ten years,” India added in its statement.
India also pointed out the situation of minorities in Pakistan and mentioned in the report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan that an estimated 1,000 women from minority communities are subjected to abduction, forced conversion, and marriage in the country every year.
The statement read, “The condition of women belonging to minority communities remains just as deplorable. According to a recent report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an estimated 1,000 women from minority communities are subjected to abduction and forced conversion and marriage in the country every year.”
Raising the voice of the people of Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Thulasidhass added, “The Council must also pay attention to the continued sufferings of millions of people in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”.
(With ANI Inputs)