India hits back at Pak, says its citizens have suffered repeated inhuman terror attacks

United Nations: Hitting back strongly at Pakistan, India on Thursday said its citizens have faced repeated "inhuman" terror attacks by "proxies" of Pakistan, which continues to abuse the concept of self-determination to bolster territorial aggrandizement against it.

"Pakistan, whose own people have been deprived of their democratic rights for most of its history and which continues to illegally occupy a part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and rules it as a virtual colony, repeatedly indulges in the abuse of the concept of self-determination to bolster its agenda of territorial aggrandizement through terrorism against India," Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Mayank Joshi said at a General Assembly session on the 'Right of people to self-determination'.

Strongly rejecting Pakistan's "ritual propaganda" on the right to self-determination and the "baseless allegations" made by it, Joshi said India is the world's largest democracy and free and fair elections are held regularly in Jammu and Kashmir meeting the aspiration of its people.

"The truth is that thousands of innocent citizens of India, including women and children, continue to fall victim to the repeated inhuman terrorist attacks committed by proxies of the State of Pakistan in our region," Joshi said.

He stressed that India has repeatedly pointed out that Pakistan would serve its people better if only it could introspect about the challenges faced by its society "instead of setting sights on territories of their neighbours in flagrant violation of all international norms of behaviour".

"By now the international community has seen through these misleading attempts by Pakistan. We therefore do not intend to engage any further on this issue," he said.

Joshi asserted that the right to self-determination has been recognised for long as applicable to the peoples of non-self-governing colonies and trust territories.

"This concept cannot become an instrument to promote subversion and erode the political cohesion or territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Member states of the UN," Joshi said.

He emphasised that Palestine remains the "unfinished task" in the realization of the right of peoples to self-determination and reiterated India's "unwavering solidarity" for the people of Palestine to attain their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination.

"My delegation has reiterated its full support for the Peace Process and the Qaurtet Roadmap which would realise the dream of the peoples of both Palestine and Israel to live in peace, side by side within recognised and secure borders," he said.

He said escalation of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance continues to lead to gross violations of human rights of national, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, and of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

Earlier raising the issue of Kashmir, Pakistan's envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said peace in South Asia cannot be achieved without "urgent" solution to the Kashmir dispute.