‘A Country with a History of Genocide Preaching on Kashmir’: India Slams Pakistan at the UN

New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, India stated, “A ‘long-standing stained’ record of acts of genocide reveals a pattern wherein Pakistan attempts to deflect the blame for its internal failures onto others through violence—both within and beyond its borders.” This statement by India came during the UN Security Council’s annual open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, made these remarks after the Pakistani representative referred to Jammu and Kashmir during the debate. Harish asserted, “It is ironic that Pakistan has chosen to raise issues that are entirely India’s internal matters.”

‘During the Holy Month…’
Referring to Pakistan’s attacks on Afghanistan earlier this year, Indian representative Parvathaneni said, “The world has not forgotten that in March of this very year—during the holy month of Ramadan—Pakistan carried out a barbaric airstrike on the ‘Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital’ in Kabul.”

Citing the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, he stated, “This cowardly and inhumane act of violence claimed the lives of 269 civilians and left 122 others injured. This incident occurred at a location that could, by no stretch of the imagination, be justified as a legitimate military target.” He further noted that Pakistan’s conduct exemplifies a ‘double standard’—on one hand, it speaks of the lofty principles of international law, while on the other, it targets innocent civilians under the cover of darkness.

According to UNAMA, these airstrikes took place just as the evening Tarawih prayers were concluding, at a time when many patients were exiting the mosque. Parvathaneni also referred to the UNAMA assessment, according to which more than 94,000 people have been displaced due to cross-border armed violence perpetrated against Afghan civilians. He stated that such actions on the part of Pakistan should come as no surprise from a country that rains bombs upon its own people and systematically commits genocide.

Ambassador Harish further noted that in 1971, during ‘Operation Searchlight,’ Pakistan carried out a campaign of systematic mass rape—involving 400,000 women—and genocide at the hands of its own military. India’s intervention in this debate centered on these very allegations, as it categorically rejected Pakistan’s attempt to characterize this matter as its ‘internal affair.’