At the United Nations, India recalled the 1999 Kargil War, accusing Pakistan of refusing to accept the bodies of its own dead soldiers, whom the Indian Army buried with military honours and full Islamic rites.
Hitting back at Pakistan’s rhetoric on faith, religious freedom and burials, Indian diplomat Bhavika Mangalanandan on Friday called out the irony of a country preaching religious rights while failing to acknowledge its own soldiers in death.
The interim report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Nazila Ghanea, said that "Reports of systemic denial of funeral rights in the context of individuals killed in security operations in Jammu and Kashmir, India, including denial of return of bodies to families and remote and secret burials, disproportionately affecting Muslims and notably inconsistent with their practices, raise serious concerns.”
Responding to the report, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan said on Thursday, "It is deeply ironic that a State that did not even accept the bodies of its own soldiers who were killed in combat in 1999 in Kargil unabashedly speaks with fervour on faith, religious freedom, and burials. Let me remind them that it was the Indian Army who buried a number of Pakistani soldiers with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rites.”
India also told Pakistan to stop obsession over Jammu and Kashmir and instead focus on the territories under its illegal occupation.
Addressing the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief on the topic of funeral rights in exceptional circumstances, Mangalanandan reminded Pakistan that it was the Indian Army that buried several Pakistani soldiers with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rights.
“Pakistan's deep obsession with what is happening in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir should be actually directed at the developments that are underway in the parts of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation, such as Rawalakot,” she said, adding that in Pakistan, a number of minorities are shrinking; their rights regularly abused.
“A State that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no standing to lecture India,” she said.
Minorities in Pakistan make up approximately 4 per cent of the total population, comprising mainly Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its seventh annual report, titled “Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26”, released last week, said minorities in Pakistan continue to face violations of fundamental rights, misuse of blasphemy laws, forced marriages and conversions, and discriminatory practices.
Mangalanandan added that burial rights for terrorists are being justified by indicating that States may restrict funeral rights of terrorists, but only within legal limits.
“Legal limits should be determined in accordance with the principles of sovereign rights. A terrorist not only kills innocent people but damages the psyche of a nation,” she said, adding that the report’s fervent advocacy for the rights of terrorists, who violate the most sacred right of humans - the right to life - does not similarly extend to the victims of terrorism.
“The report goes back half a decade to find references to my country. It fails when it comes to grave violations committed recently in our region and in the developed world,” she said.
Mangalanandan said that as per the report, all discrimination and wrong practices during COVID-19 supposedly took place only in the Global South.
“What benefit does the report derive by not mentioning similar tragic situations in the developed world? Deriving political mileage out of people's pain and loss should not be a topic that SRs (Special Rapporteurs) should base their relevance on,” she said.