Responding to Islamabad’s attack on New Delhi at the UN Security Council over Kashmir, Bharat has reminded Pakistan of its shameful history of committing the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh for which it has not apologised or even acknowledged.
“The reign of terror unleashed by Pakistan on the population of the then East Pakistan, saw hundreds of thousands killed brutally; several thousands of women were raped,” Kajal Bhatt, a counsellor in Bharat’s UN mission, said on Thursday.
“Today, we are discussing how to strengthen accountability and justice for serious violations of international law,” but Pakistan is going on like a broken record spewing malicious propaganda against Bharat, she added.
“The irony is perhaps lost on the representative of Pakistan, given their shameful history of committing genocide in what was then East Pakistan, and what is now Bangladesh, over 50 years back for which there has not even been an acknowledgement much less apology or accountability,” Bhatt said while exercising the right of reply to Pakistan’s statement.
“Innocent women, children, academics and intellectuals were treated as weapons of war in an act of calculated genocide carried out by the Pakistani army what it called ‘Operation Searchlight’.”
Albania, which is the President of the Council this month, convened the debate on “Strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law”.
During the debate, Pakistan’s Acting Permanent Representative Aamir Khan accused India of “grave breaches of international criminal law” in Kashmir and of trying to “change its demographics” from Muslim majority to Hindu majority by cancelling its special constitutional status.
In response, Bhatt said: “The only attempts at demographic changes are being perpetrated by terrorists supported by his country who have been targeting members of religious minorities in Jammu and Kashmir as well as those who refuse to toe their line.
“The only contribution that Pakistan can make is to stop its support for terrorism directed against my country and my people. India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross border.”
She said that Khan “presents a live example in the Security Council of how a state continues to evade accountability for serious crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing”.
“To ask them to reflect on this is perhaps asking too much, but the least they could do is not sully the dignity of this council.”
(With IANS inputs)
Pakistan itself is a terrorist country that has been continuing to train militarily Afghan and Pak youths to produce Taliban, JIhadists and terrorists (like LeT, LTT) over nearly half a century. It narrowly got saved from being designated as a terrorist country by the UN. Its rulers have been ruthless, violent and known for henious atrocities. In the 1971 war, it unleashed a reign of terror in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Supported by its henchmen, the Rajarkars, the ruthless Pak rulers waged pogrom of Hindus. Hindu women were dragged out of home, raped and killed. Men folk were blinded, stabbed to death at random. Hindu houses and properties were gutted down. The Pak soldiers acted like remorseless predators killing untold number of Hindus (probably half a million) in their last standoff. If not India intervened, the Pak soldiers would have eliminated the last Hindu there. So Pakistan, its rulers and soldiers, and administrators have different mindset. Actually, they had East Pakistan under its fold to plunder that land and its economy. But they made one big mistake. Blinded by religion, they began to torture the Hindus and other minorities group who bgean to flee their mother and began to flock into neighboring India generating a huge burden of refugee crisis in India. The situation aggravated to the extreme and reached beyond tolerance. And as a consequence, Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister of India sent Indian troops to East Pakistan and defeated the Pak army. That was the big disgrace to Pakistan whose 1 lakh soldiers became India’s POWs. Though these POWs were handed over to Pakistan, East Pakistan got out of the clutch of Pakistan and became an independent nation which is Bangladesh. Pakistan will never forget this debacle and so the question of their apology for carrying out Hindu genocide in 1971 does not arise. Actually, they lack conscience. So begging apology for any misdeed is not found in their dictionary. Nazis were put on trial because of their genocide of Jews. But Pak General Niyaji and his soldiers who perpetrated similar genocidal action were not put on the dock.