India calls Pakistan 'a country soaked in red' after latter rakes up J&K at UN

In a war of words with Pakistan at the High-Level Segment of the 55th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council, India said that its neighbouring country has institutionalised the systemic persecution of its minorities and that it has a truly abysmal human rights record which gives it no right to comment on New Delhi's internal matters.

India was exercising its 'Right of Reply'while responding to the references made to New Delhi on Wednesday (Feb 28).

India's First Secretary Anupama Singh said that regarding the lengthy mentions of India made by Pakistan, the Council's forum has once again regrettably been abused to propagate flagrantly false accusations regarding New Delhi.

"With regard to the extensive references to India made by Pakistan, we note that it is deeply unfortunate for the Council's platform to have once again been misused to make patently false allegations against India," Singh said.

"The entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral and inalienable part of India, and the constitutional measures taken by the Government of India to ensure socio-economic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters internal to India. Pakistan has no locus standi to pronounce on matters that are internal to India," the first secretary added.

Calling the human rights record of Pakistan "truly abysmal," the first secretary said, "A country that has institutionalised the systemic persecution of its own minorities and has a truly abysmal human rights record, commenting on India, which is demonstrably making great strides in achieving economic progress and social justice, is not merely ironical but perverse."

"A glaring example was the large scale brutality perpetrated against the minority Christian community in Jaranwala city, Pakistan in August 2023, when 19 churches were gutted and 89 Christian houses burnt down. A country that hosts and even celebrates UNSC-sanctioned terrorists, commenting on India whose pluralistic ethos and democratic credentials are exemplars for the world, is a contrast for everyone to see," she said.

Pakistan sponsors terrorism across the world: India's staunch reply

Singh said that the Pakistani government has failed to fulfil the actual interests of its citizens and that it also sponsors terrorism throughout the world.

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"We cannot pay any further attention to a country that speaks while being soaked in red, the red of the bloodshed from the terrorism it sponsors around the world; the red of its debt-riddled national balance sheets; and the red of the shame its own people feel for their government having failed to serve their actual interests," Singh concluded.

The UN Human Rights Council's 55th Regular Session is being held from February 26-April 5.

(With inputs from agencies)