India on Wednesday strongly hit out at UN rapporteur Ben Saul over a counter-terrorism report and called for high standards of impartiality after the document described underworld don Dawood Ibrahim as the leader of the “India-based” D-Company criminal gang with terrorist ties.
Raghoo Puri, India's First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, expressed “serious concern” over the Special Rapporteur “releasing reports with factual inaccuracies while not being held accountable for them”.
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“This presents Member States with a fait accompli, which is unfortunate for this organisation that is facing challenges of legitimacy,” he told the UN assembly.
India affirms Dawood Ibrahim residing in Pakistan
Puri said that Dawood is a wanted criminal in India and, according to the UN's listing entry, was living in Pakistan.
He said the report noted that the Security Council had listed the head of D-Company in 2003 over links to Al-Qaeda. However, he argued that “this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality”.
Puri said D-Company and its listed leader, Dawood Ibrahim, had been wanted in India over terror attacks since 1993. “This is clearly written in the narrative summary of reasons of listing under the 1267 sanctions regime.”
“Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on the part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm,” Puri added.
He told the assembly that Dawood had been wanted in India well before the 2003 listing. He said Dawood was listed during this period for his links to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden while operating from outside India.
“To date, he remains a wanted criminal in my country, and as per the UN's listing entry, resides in the same country where Osama bin Laden was found and neutralised," the Indian diplomat said. Notably, he was referring to Pakistan, where bin Laden was found and killed.
India also criticised the bias in the report, arguing that human rights principles should not be used to shield those responsible for terrorism.
"It seems to have become fashionable for sponsors of terror to use human rights and the framework of counterterrorism to justify their misdeeds. The human rights framework cannot be the refuge of the perpetrators of terror and those who propagate radicalisation and extremism. Terrorism can never be justified," he said.
India slams Pakistan’s remarks on Kashmir
Puri also responded to remarks made by the Pakistani delegation and reiterated that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral parts of India.
"Regarding the statement just made by the delegate of Pakistan, everyone in this room knows that what has been mentioned against my country, including about the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, is pure propaganda made for very narrow political gains. And these have been on account of the actual rulers of Pakistan, which is its military,” he said.
He added, “I would like to reiterate for the record that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are inalienable parts of India, have been so, and will always remain so.”
India hit out at UN over ‘selective targeting’ earlier
On Tuesday, India said that human rights should not be used to exert political pressure or to single out countries after more than 20 UN human rights experts in Geneva raised concerns over what they described as a "repeatedly heavy-handed police response" to youth-led protests in the national capital.
Barkha Tamrakar, deputy secretary in the ministry of external affairs, delivered India's statement at the UN General Assembly's Third Committee. “India engages with international human rights mechanisms, but such engagement must be based on dialogue, consultation, cooperation, with non-selectivity and transparency as guiding principles,” she said.
Tamrakar said India was ready to address specific cases backed by proper documentation through established channels. However, she opposed any "attempt to convert unverified allegations, incomplete statistics or a report that contains no India country observation into a negative characterisation of the world's largest democracy".
The response came after criticism from UN experts over the Indian police's “heavy-handed” handling of youth-led protests in Delhi and other areas over the past three months. They called on the authorities to protect peaceful demonstrations and ensure justice for alleged human rights violations during these and earlier protests.
Last week, India rejected as “hearsay” a report by a UN human rights expert that referred to a “satirical political movement” formed by young people in the country and alleged that its members had faced retaliation. New Delhi urged the expert to “verify” the claims before “vilifying issues based on unverified allegations.”
With inputs from agencies