India staged a walkout at the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, expressing strong disagreement over Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statements about the country.
Mijito Vinito, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the UN, walked out of the session after Khan began talking about India in his virtual address. TS Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the UN, described the incident as a “new diplomatic low”.
“The Pakistan PM’s statement is a new diplomatic low at the 75th UN General Assembly. Another litany of vicious falsehood, personal attacks, war mongering and obfuscation of Pakistan’s persecution of its own minorities and of its cross-border terrorism. Befitting Right of Reply awaits,” he said in a tweet.
In his pre-recorded video statement to the General Debate at the 75th session of the UNGA on Friday, Khan made references to India’s internal affairs, including Jammu and Kashmir. Vinito walked out when Khan started his speech. India has firmly told Pakistan that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been, is, and will continue to be an integral part of India. New Delhi has maintained that issues related to Jammu and Kashmir are internal matters to India.
Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 last year and bifurcating it into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.
Khan at the session spoke about the rise of Islamophia in various countries around the world, saying Muslims were being killed, mosques desecrated and religious hatred stoked at the time of Covid-19 pandemic. Targeting India, Khan said it had “upped its military ante” against Pakistan “to divert attention from its domestic problems”, said a report by Pakistani daily Dawn.
Earlier on Friday, India at the 45th Session of the Human Rights Council said Pakistan should not preach to others and remember that terrorism was the worst form of human rights abuse and crime against humanity.
“The world doesn’t need lessons on human rights from a country which has been known as nursery and epicenter of terrorism,” said Senthil Kumar, First Secretary to the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, during India’s right to reply at the session. He said enforced disappearances, state violence and forced mass displacements, among other forms of persecution were regular features were Balochistan.
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