Pakistan, India Exchange Back-And-Forth Criticism Over Disputed Kashmir

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2021) Pakistan hit back at India on Tuesday after its arch-rival accused Islamabad's mission to the United Nations in Geneva of lying about human rights violations in the India-controlled part of the contested Kashmir region.

The two regional giants traded barbs during an interactive dialogue with the UN high commissioner for human rights. Both countries called on Michelle Bachelet to act on perceived rights abuses.

"The Indian representative has resorted to a diversionary litany of lies, disinformation, and baseless allegations and obfuscates his country's atrocities in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir," Sumair Gul, a senior member of the Pakistani mission, said.

He denied India's accusations that Pakistan was trying to distract the international community from its own crimes against minorities by blaming India for attacks on Muslim Kashmiris.

Gul said India's Hindu government was trying to change the ethnic and religious makeup of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region through "demographic engineering," while gagging critics.

India and Pakistan have fought several wars over Kashmir since gaining independence in 1947. Their ties hit rock bottom again in 2019 after the Indian government stripped the Jammu and Kashmir state of its special status and broke it up into two union territories.