india

Updated: Jul 08, 2019 23:18 IST

India on Monday rejected a United Nations’ report on human rights abuse in Jammu and Kashmir and lodged a strong protest against it, calling it “the continuation of the earlier false and motivated narrative” on the situation in the border state.

In an “Update of the Situation of Human Rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir from May 2018 to April 2019”, the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted “serious human rights violations and patterns of impunity in Indian-Administered Kashmir”.

It also underlined significant human rights concerns in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Reacting to the 43-page report, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “Its (the report’s) assertions are in violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and ignore the core issue of cross-border terrorism.”

His comments are in line with India’s rejection of the OHCHR’s first report, released in June 2018, on human rights abuse in the state. Last year’s report focused on allegations of human rights violations, excessive use of force by Indian security forces causing civilian casualties, arbitrary detention and impunity for human rights.

“The Update seems to be a contrived effort to create an artificial parity between the world’s largest and the most vibrant democracy and a country that openly practises state-sponsored terrorism,” he said. Kumar said it was a matter of deep concern that the update seemed to give legitimacy to terrorism that was in complete variance with UN Security Council positions. India has lodged a strong protest regarding the Update with the OHCHR, he said.

The UN body asked the Indian authorities to respect human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, urgently repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, [and, in the meantime, immediately remove the requirement for prior central government permission to prosecute security forces personnel accused of human rights violations in civilian courts] and set up impartial and credible investigations to probe all civilian killings which have occurred since July 2016, the year Burhan Wani was killed.

Wani, once a poster boy of militancy in the Valley, was killed in a gun battle with security forces on July 8, 2016, in Kokernag area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Wani’s killing was marked by widespread violence in Kashmir for about four months.

The UN body asked India to provide rehabilitation to all individuals injured and the family of those killed in security operations and probe and prosecute all cases of sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by state and non-state actors.

Kumar said the UNSC had in February 2019 condemned the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force troopers lost their lives and subsequently proscribed Masood Azhar, the self-styled leader of terrorist entity Jaish-e-Mohammed. “However, in the update, terrorist leaders and organisations sanctioned by the UN are deliberately underplayed as “armed groups”, he added.