Pakistan Has "DNA of Terrorism": India's Reply on Kashmir at UNESCO

News Network
November 15, 2019

Paris, Nov 15: Pakistan has a "deep-rooted DNA of terrorism", India said in a sharp reply to Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir at a UN meet in France on Thursday, asserting that the cash-strapped nation's "neurotic behavior" had resulted in its decline to a nearly failed state. The country had "all shades of darkness," said India at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris.

"Pakistan's neurotic behaviour has resulted in its decline to a nearly failed state with its weak economy, radicalised society and deep-rooted DNA of terrorism," said Ananya Agarwal, who led the Indian delegation to the UNESCO meet.

Pakistan is home to all shades of darkness, from extremist ideologies and darker powers of radicalisation to the darkest manifestations of terrorism, she told the panel.

"We condemn Pakistan's disappointing misuse of UNESCO to spew venom against India and politicise it," she added.

Ananya Agarwal noted that Pakistan, in 2018, had ranked 14th on the fragile state index.

Pakistan is a country whose leader uses the UN platform to openly preach nuclear war and issue a call to arms against other nations, said Ms Agarwal, referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks at the UN General Assembly session in September, in which he had said that if there were to be a face-off between two nuclear-armed neighbours, the consequences would go far beyond their borders.

"Would this gathering believe if I told them that one of Pakistan's former presidents, General Pervez Musharraf, recently called terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and the Haqqani network as Pakistan's heroes," she questioned.

Ms Agarwal stressed that Pakistan had been engaging in diabolic rhetoric to malign India in front of the international community irrespective of the deplorable conditions of human rights suffered by the minority community on its own soil.

"From 1947, when the minorities formed 23 per cent of Pakistan's population, they have now dwindled to nearly 3 per cent. It has subjected Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, Hindus, Shias, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Balochis to draconian blasphemy laws, blatant abuse and forced conversions. The gender-based crimes against women include including honour killings, acid attacks forced conversions, forced marriages and child marriages remain a severe problem in Pakistan today," she said.

India, she emphasized, "strongly rejects the fabricated falsehoods peddled by Pakistan in its statement overflowing with hypocrisy to hide its own pathetic and pitiable records as a nation including its own treatment of minorities, the spread of hate speech and glorification of terrorism."

In her concluding remarks, the panelist hoped that the UNESCO membership would come together to reject such a gross misuse of the platform by any member nation.

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News Network
February 26,2020

Feb 26: In a midnight hearing, the Delhi High Court directed police to ensure safe passage to government hospitals and emergency treatment for those injured in the communal violence erupted in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law.

The court held a special hearing, which started at 12:30 am, at the residence of Justice S Muralidhar after receiving a call from an advocate explaining the dire circumstances under which the victims were unable to be removed from a small hospital to the GTB Hospital.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Anup J Bhambhani directed the Delhi Police to ensure safe passage of the injured victims by deploying all resources at its command and on the strength of this order as well as to make sure they receive immediate emergency treatment if not at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital then at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) or Maulana Azad or any other hospital.

The bench also called for a status report of compliance, including information about the injured victims and the treatment offered to them, and the matter will be heard during the day at 2:15 pm.

It said the order be communicated to the medical superintendents of the GTB and the LNJP Hospitals.

The urgent hearing was conducted after advocate Suroor Mander called the judge and sought urgent orders for safe passage of ambulances for the injured.

The Delhi Police and the government were represented through additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose.

During the hearing, the bench spoke over phone to doctor Anwar of the Al-hind Hospital in New Mustafabad who told the court that there were two bodies and 22 injured persons there and he had been trying to seek police assistance since 4 pm on Tuesday without success.

The court then directed the senior officials to reach to the hospital forthwith, following which they started the process of evacuating the injured to the nearest hospitals.

It also said this order be brought to the knowledge of the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Communal violence over the amended citizenship law in northeast Delhi claimed at least 18 lives till Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the violence escalated in northeast Delhi as police struggled to check the rioters who ran amok on streets, burning and looting shops, pelting stones and thrashing people.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 11: The effective handling of Covid-19 pandemic by the Kerala Government has received a big endorsement in the International media with the latest being a report in Washington Post which suggests that the State’s success could prove instructive to the entire country.

The Washington Post quoted Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja Teacher as saying “We hoped for the best but planned for the worst. Now, the curve has flattened, but we cannot predict what will happen next week.”

"The Minister said six states had reached out to Kerala for advice. She, however, noted that it might not be easy to replicate Kerala’s lessons elsewhere," according to the Minister's office quoting the report here on Saturday.

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News Network
February 24,2020

New Delhi, Feb 24: The shared values between India and the US are "discrimination, bigotry, and hostility towards refugees and asylum seekers", Amnesty International USA said in a joint statement with Amnesty International India ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to India on Monday.

Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as senior officials of his administration, landed in Ahmedabad on the first leg of his two-day visit to India.

"Anti-Muslim sentiment permeates the policies of both U.S. and Indian leaders. For decades, the U.S.-India relationship was anchored by claims of shared values of human rights and human dignity. Now, those shared values are discrimination, bigotry, and hostility towards refugees and asylum seekers,” Margaret Huang, Amnesty International USA’s executive director, was quoted as saying in the statement.

It was a reference to the anti-CAA protests in India, the internet lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir and the Muslim ban expansion by President Trump affecting Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania, the statement said.

It added that Amnesty International USA’s researchers travelled to Lebanon and Jordan to conduct nearly 50 interviews with refugees that as a result of the previous version of the ban have been stranded in countries where they face restrictive policies, increasingly hostile environments, and lack the same rights as permanent residents or citizens.

The statement also came down hard on the Indian government, hitting out at the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 and saying it legitimises discrimination based on religious grounds.

It criticised statements such as “identify them (the protestors) by their clothes” or “shoot the traitors” by Prime Minister Modi and his party workers. Such remarks "peddled the narrative of fear and division that has fuelled further violence", it said.

“The internet and political lockdown in Kashmir has lasted for months and the enactment of CAA and the crackdown on protests has shown a leadership that is lacking empathy and a willingness to engage. We call on President Trump and Prime Minister Modi to work with the international community and address our concerns in their bilateral conversations,” Avinash Kumar, executive director, Amnesty International India said in the statement.

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