The Indian envoy said that such heinous acts of aggression by Pakistan should not come as a surprise from a country that “bombs its own people and conducts systematic genocide”.
New Delhi: India has torn into Pakistan’s “long-tainted” record of genocidal acts at the United Nations Security Council, accusing Islamabad of using terrorism as a tool to destabilise the region. Speaking at the Annual UNSC Open Debate on ‘Protection of civilians in armed conflict’, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, also accused Pakistan of carrying out cross-border violence against Afghan civilians.
“It is ironic that Pakistan, with its long-tainted record of genocidal acts, has chosen to refer to issues that are strictly internal to India,” he noted. The Indian diplomat’s remarks came after Islamabad’s representative raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the debate.
On Pak’s Afghan Terror
Parvathaneni pointed to Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghanistan earlier this year and said, “The world has not forgotten that it was during the holy month of Ramadan in March this year, at a time of peace, reflection, and mercy, that Pakistan conducted a barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul.”
He also cited data from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to highlight how Islamabad’s military operations have been behind large-scale civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
“The UNAMA documentation attributed 94 of 95 incidents of civilian casualties to Pakistani security forces. The world has not forgotten that it was during the holy month of Ramadan in March this year, at a time of peace, reflection, and mercy, that Pakistan conducted a barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul. Again, according to UNAMA, this cowardly and unconscionable act of violence claimed the lives of 269 civilians and injured a further 122 in a facility which can by no means be justified as a military target,” the diplomat noted.
Parvathaneni accused Islamabad of ignoring international calls to protect civilians and uphold humanitarian obligations.
He noted it is “hypocritical” of Pakistan to espouse high principles of international law while “targeting innocent civilians in the dark.”
Per the UNAMA data, the air strikes by Pakistan occurred at the conclusion of tarawih evening prayers, when numerous patients were leaving the masjid. The report said over 94,000 people were assessed as displaced due to cross-border armed violence perpetrated against Afghan civilians.
The Indian envoy said that such heinous acts of aggression by Pakistan should not come as a surprise from a country that “bombs its own people and conducts systematic genocide”.
On The Bangladesh Genocide
He also accused Pakistan of sanctioning the systematic campaign of genocidal mass rape of 400,000 women citizens by its own army during Operation Searchlight in 1971.
Operation Searchlight was the codename the Pakistani Army used for its action against the Bangladeshi nationalist movement in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in March 1971.
“Such inhuman conduct reflects Pakistan’s repeated attempts over decades to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence both within and beyond its borders. With no faith, no law, and no morality, the world can see through Pakistan’s propaganda,” he said.
