India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish (ANI file photo)
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday, at the United Nations, denounced Pakistani strikes on neighbouring Afghanistan during the month of Ramadan while strongly responding to Islamabad’s false allegations against India. The country’s permanent representative also flagged at the UN the rising trend and dangers of weaponising religious identity and instrumentalising it by both state and non-state actors to serve narrow political ends.Also Read | 400 killed, 250 wounded in Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul hospital, claim TalibanIndia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, raised concerns over the growing use of religious identity for selfish motives.“I stress that it is important for the UN to take note of the rising trend and dangers of weaponising religious identity and instrumentalising it to serve narrow political ends — by state and non-state actors alike,” he said.
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Harish also highlighted atrocities taking place in India’s western neighbourhood. Without naming Pakistan, he underlined Islamabad’s brutality against persecuted minorities, including those belonging to the same faith, and criticised its bombing of neighbouring Afghanistan during the holy month of Ramadan.Also Read | Watch: Flames, huge smoke columns seen after Pakistan airstrike on Kabul hospital that killed 400He said, “India’s western neighbour is an excellent example of fabricating imaginative tales of Islamophobia in their neighbourhood. One wonders what the brutal repression of Ahmadiyya community in this country would be termed, or the large-scale refoulement of helpless Afghans, or air-bombing campaigns in this holy month of Ramadan.”“The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which our western neighbour has systematically attempted to weaponise against India, has repeatedly made false and baseless allegations against my country,” he added.Clarifying India’s position at the UN, Harish also addressed allegations against the country.“Muslims in India, including those in Jammu and Kashmir, elect their own representatives to speak for them. The only ‘phobia’ evident here appears to be directed against the multicultural and peaceful coexistence that all communities in India enjoy, including Muslim communities,” Harish said.Meanwhile, on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, Pakistan once again launched airstrikes in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, hitting a hospital in the capital, Kabul, and claiming 400 lives as part of Islamabad’s continuing military campaign against Afghanistan, dubbed Operation Ghazab Lilhaq.
