New Delhi: Pakistan is the “epicentre of global terrorism”, India said Wednesday — exactly a year since the Balakot air strike — and reiterated that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has remained normal despite efforts by the neighbouring country to create disturbances.
“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. Nonetheless, let me set the record straight on the issues raised,” said Vikas Swarup, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, at the UN Human Right Council’s 43rd session in Geneva Wednesday.
Confidence boost on J&K
Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever remain” an integral part of India, Swarup said, and added that the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35(A) last August was meant to “strengthen the integration of the state, including to give fullest play to representative government from the grassroots level upward”.
He also said the move was intended to ensure socioeconomic development of J&K and that the measures taken by the government are “already showing positive results”.
The Narendra Modi government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on 5 August 2019, turning it into two union territories, and imposed the region’s longest lockdown. Pakistan has since raised the matter on multiple occasions in an attempt to globally corner India. New Delhi, however, has maintained Kashmir is an internal issue.
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“Despite Pakistan’s best efforts — over decades — to destabilise this state through externally-instigated terror and a campaign of canards and untruth, the situation on the ground is quite normal,” he said.
Most of the temporary restrictions were imposed by the government “solely to ensure safety of the people from Pakistani-trained terrorist attacks”.
“Schools, colleges and universities have resumed and regular examinations are being held. Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies are well-stocked and staffing is at full capacity,” Swarup added.
He highlighted that there has been an 81 per cent increase in infiltration attempts by Pakistan since August.
“Pakistan also felt it necessary to offer advise and warnings about the situation within India … India is a nation where democracy, including the right to protest, is vibrantly and noisily celebrated every day, where diversity has been a way of life since times immemorial and where dignity of every human is protected by a robust Constitutional framework,” he said.
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The world, led by the US, needs Pakistan, to end the futile, fruitless war in Afghanistan. Indian entreaties will fall on deaf ears. Our own stock is not soaring, like Apple’s or Alphabet’s.