Harivansh Narayan Singh slams Pak for raising Kashmir issue during Speakers' meet in Maldives

By By Amit Kumar
New Delhi [India], Sep 4 (ANI): Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh during his visit to Majlis thwarted all attempts by his Pakistani counterpart to raise the issue of Kashmir during the 4th South Asian Speaker Summit in the Maldives.
He slammed Islamabad for raking up the issue of Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir and suggested the neighbouring nation to first look into its own territory.
"The agenda of the meeting was to discuss Sustainable Development of Growth and it was clear that no other issues would be discussed by the participants. Pakistan tried to raise the Kashmir issue but I reminded them that it is our internal matter and told the participants that Pakistan is trying to raise the question on Human Rights," he said in an exclusive interview with ANI in New Delhi.
"When we are representing our country on international forum and if anyone tries to bring up the matter related to our identity, we cannot tolerate it," Pakistan talking about Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir? In Pakistan, a Sikh girl is first abducted and then was forced to convert her religion. How can this country teach us about Human Rights," The Rajya Sabha deputy Chairman added.
Harivansh also claimed that people living in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are being killed and tortured. He further trained guns at Pakistan for war crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh genocide and the ongoing issue of Human Rights in Bangladesh.
"In PoK, administration of Pakistan is killing and torturing locals. Besides, the whole world knows about what had happened in Bangladesh and what is happening in Balochistan. Everyone knows about Pakistan but still, they tried talking about Human Rights on international forum."
It should be noted that on the sidelines of the Summit, the Indian parliamentary delegation also held a detailed discussion with the parliamentary delegations from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on matters of bilateral interest.
Addressing the 4th South Asian Speakers' Summit, Pakistan deputy speaker Qasim Suri tried to use the platform to talk about the Kashmir situation following the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the state.
In a swift intervention, Harivansh Narayan Singh had stated said that a country (Pakistan) which perpetrated genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 and illegally occupied Azad Kashmir has no moral right to raise these issues internationally.
"We strongly object to the raising of internal matters of India at this forum. We also reject the politicisation of this forum by raising issues which are extraneous to the theme of this summit," he had said. (ANI)