Rejecting references by Pakistan on the condition of women in Kashmir, India said that innocent women have suffered for long due to persistent terror attacks by ‘proxies of Pakistan’. The statement was made by Counsellor Mayank Joshi in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, reports PTI.
Joshi exercised India’s Right of Reply after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Special Envoy on Kashmir Shezra Mansab Ali Khan said armed conflict and illegal occupation accentuates the plight of women in Kashmir. Khan made the statements during an October 11 session on ‘Advancement of Women’ in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on social and humanitarian issues.
Citing the situation in Kashmir, the Pakistani envoy said, “Thousands of women have fallen victim to brutal oppression and occupation. Countless others have suffered rape and sexual abuse, the worst and most traumatic form of violence.”
In reply, Mayank Joshi said it is ‘ironical’ that a country that has ‘institutionalised the oppression’ of women in its society including through ‘medieval draconian laws is making claims about the rights of women in a pluralistic democracy such as India’.
“We are aware of Pakistan’s cynical attempts to pursue diplomacy of hate through lies and deceit. We do not intend to further respond to such misguided and futile efforts,” he added.
During the reply, a Pakistani official however again took the floor to exercise the Right of Reply to Joshi’s remarks, saying no amount of ‘obfuscation’ could hide the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.
He said Jammu and Kashmir was an ‘internationally recognised’ dispute and Pakistan rejected ‘any insinuations to equate the legitimate struggles of the Kashmiri people with acts of terrorism’.
Pakistan has been constantly raising the Kashmir issue at various platforms in the UN, including the General Assembly and its various committees that deal with diverse issues such as disarmament and decolonisation.
