India strongly criticised Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), describing the Indus Waters Treaty as “outdated” and no longer suited to present-day realities. New Delhi asserted that a country that continues to sponsor terrorism cannot expect the benefits of cooperation based on goodwill and friendship.
Speaking during India’s Right of Reply at the 62nd Session of the UNHRC, First Secretary Anupama Singh of India’s Permanent Mission to the UN rejected Pakistan’s allegations and slammed Islamabad for repeatedly attempting to internationalise bilateral issues.
“Our position on the Indus Waters Treaty is well known. It defies logic that a state which exports terror as an instrument of policy continues to demand the privileges of cooperation predicated on goodwill and friendship,” Singh said.
“It is equally undeniable that the treaty is now outdated. No technical arrangement can remain frozen in time while the world around it is transformed. A treaty negotiated in 1960 cannot be treated as a perpetual entitlement which is insulated from accountability, detached from present-day realities, and untouched by the profound changes of the past six decades,” she added.
Following the recent Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”
Pakistan relies heavily on the Indus river system, which supports 80 per cent of its 16 million hectares of agricultural land and accounts for 93 per cent of its total water use.
Singh urged Pakistan to focus on its internal challenges instead of levelling baseless claims against India.“Instead of coveting Indian territories, Pakistan would serve itself and its people far better by putting its own house in order. Its seasonal theatrics in this council have long outlived any novelty,” she said.
She further described Pakistan as a “Frankenstein state” that nurtured extremist groups only to later suffer the consequences of its own policies.
“This is the country where the sitting Defence Minister boasts of hosting, training and deploying terrorists as a state policy, and yet Pakistan calls itself a victim of terrorism, indeed a paradox which only Pakistan could sustain. It is a living example of a Frankenstein state, which is shocked when its own monster bites back,” Singh had said.
The Indian diplomat also rejected references made by Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) regarding Jammu and Kashmir.
“We categorically reject the baseless and malicious allegations made by Pakistan. We also categorically reject the OIC’s references to J&K. Pakistan’s propaganda is designed to mask its domestic failures and support for terrorism,” she said.
Reaffirming India’s position, Singh stated that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India” and maintained that the only unresolved issue remains Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Indian territories.
India’s intervention at the UNHRC underscored New Delhi’s continued rejection of Pakistan’s allegations while highlighting concerns over terrorism, cross-border hostility, and developments in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
(with ANI inputs)
