India slammed Pakistan at the UN, reminding the country that it did not even accept the bodies of its own soldiers killed in combat in the 1999 Kargil war but speaks about faith, religious freedom and burials.
The interim report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Nazila Ghanea, said that “Reports of systemic denial of funeral rights in the context of individuals killed in security operations in Jammu and Kashmir, India, including denial of return of bodies to families and remote and secret burials, disproportionately affecting Muslims and notably inconsistent with their practices, raise serious concerns.”
Responding to the report, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan said, “It is deeply ironic that a State that did not even accept the bodies of its own soldiers who were killed in combat in 1999 in Kargil unabashedly speaks with fervour on faith, religious freedom, and burials.” Indian Army recovered bodies of Pakistani soldiers who died in the Kargil War and provided them with burials after Pakistan refused to acknowledge the involvement of Pakistan Army personnel in the war. Addressing the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief on the topic of funeral rights in exceptional circumstances, Mangalanandan reminded Pakistan that it was the Indian Army that buried several Pakistani soldiers with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rites. “Pakistan’s deep obsession with what is happening in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir should be actually directed at the developments that are underway in the parts of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation, such as Rawalakot,” she said, adding that in Pakistan, a number of minorities are shrinking; their rights regularly abused. “A State that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no standing to lecture India,” she said. Minorities in Pakistan make up approximately 4 per cent of the total population, comprising mainly Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in its seventh annual report, titled “Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26”, released last week, said minorities in Pakistan continue to face violations of fundamental rights, misuse of blasphemy laws, forced marriages and conversions, and discriminatory practices.