Describing Pakistan as world’s leading exporter of terror, the government of India said Jammu & Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of India. This followed Pakistan’s call for intervention by the international community on the Kashmir issue.
Speaking at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council which is being held in Switzerland from February 24 to March 20, Vikas Swarup, secretary (West), described Pakistan as the “epicentre of global terrorism”. He called for decisive action against those who direct, control, fund and shelter terrorists, in an obvious reference to Pakistan, which is accused by its neighbours of providing safe havens to terror groups.
“It is more than a little ironical that a nation that has become the world’s leading exporter of terror and violence seeks to lecture others about human rights.” “Jammu & Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of India,” Swarup asserted a day after Pakistan’s minister for human rights Shireen Mazari alleged that India continues to violate the human rights of the Kashmiri people and demanded immediate repeal of all actions by India taken on August 5 last year.
India abrogated the special status of J&K under Article 370 on August 5 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories. Pakistan has been trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue but India has asserted that dilution of Article 370 was its “internal matter”. New Delhi has also asked Islamabad to stop its anti-India rhetoric.
Swarup said the transformative changes “wrought by our Parliament last August were meant to strengthen the integration of the state... It was intended to ensure extension of all progressive legislations passed for the entire country to cover this region, and to resume the pace of socio-economic development in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir.”
The situation on the ground is quite normal, he said. “Most temporary restrictions - imposed solely to ensure safety of the people from Pakistan-trained terrorist attacks - have already been removed, political processes have resumed (and) telecom facilities have been largely restored,” Swarup added.
