India slams UN report on Kashmir, says it relied on unverified sources

New York, July 10: India on Tuesday reiterated its stand on the UN's first-of-its-kind report on alleged human rights violations in both "Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir", saying it relied relied on unverified sources of information; a document that was not found fit to be considered.

The "document reflected the clear bias of an official", who was acting without any mandate whatsoever," Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations (UN) Tanmaya Lal said.

Pakistan raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at a UN session on Monday, the third time it did so in as many weeks.

India hit back, saying there has been yet another attempt by Pakistan to misuse the UN forum by referring to situations that are extraneous to the discussions.

Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi referred to the June 14 report on Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein during a Security Council debate on Children and Armed Conflict.

Lal, in a scathing reply, said the "so-called" report about the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir reflects the "clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information."

He said the report "was not even found fit to be considered by the membership of the forum where it was submitted."

India had rejected the human rights report by Zeid Ra'ad, who had called for a commission of inquiry by the Human Rights Council to conduct a an independent, international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.

With Pakistan repeatedly raking up the Kashmir issue at various UN sessions and platforms, Lal said such attempts distract the discussions away from the issues at hand.

"Such deliberate self-serving attempts by Pakistan seek to obfuscate the reality of their own use of terror organisations to undermine state sovereignty...Such attempts have not succeeded in the past in any forum and will not do so now," Lal said.

This was the third time in as many weeks that Pakistan raked up the Kashmir issue at the UN. India had strongly rebutted Pakistan's reference to Kashmir at UN General Assembly debate on June 25, asserting that no amount of "empty rhetoric" by Islamabad will change the reality that Kashmir is an "inalienable" part of India.

Last week, India described Pakistan as a "hub of terrorism" in South Asia and beyond, saying "cynical" attempts by it to spread a false narrative about Kashmir have been unsuccessful after Pakistan made a reference to Kashmir.