Mahakumbh 2025: A global celebration of faith resonates beyond borders
The Mahakumbh-2025 has elevated Kumbh Mela from a traditional Indian event to a global celebration of faith and spirituality.
India exposed Pakistan’s hypocrisy on Thursday at the United Nations in its strongly-worded reply after Islamabad raised the issue of human rights violations in Jammu-Kashmir.
In doing so, New Delhi coined a new term for the terrorist safe havens in Pakistan – special terrorist zones.
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“We urge the Council to call on Pakistan to end cross border infiltration, to dismantle special terrorist zones, safe havens and sanctuaries, to take verifiable actions, including on terror financing,” India said.
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India’s response to the Statement of Pakistan under the Agenda Item 2 at the 37th Session of UNHRC was read by Mini Devi Kumam, a young Indian diplomat.
“We strongly object to Pakistan’s habitual misuse of the Council to make misleading references about internal matters pertaining to the Indian state of J-K,” the Indian representative said as she tore into the Pakistani government.
New Delhi told the UN that the “dubious” concern for human rights in J-K was coming from a nation which “systematically abused and violated the human rights of the people in Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir”.
Accusing Pakistan of masking its use of terrorism as a state policy under such deceiving concerns, India said that the real problem in J-K is Pak-sponsored terrorism.
New Delhi has repeatedly accused Pakistan of backing terrorists who attack India including the 10 February attack on the Sunjuwan Military Station in Jammu which was carried out by terrorists from Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the JeM, lives safely in Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
India also reminded Islamabad of the state of human rights in Pakistan by highlighting the conditions of minorities in the country including Muslim minorities such as Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailiyas and Hazaras.
Kumam said the UN should ask Pakistan to provide freedom to people of PoK, end forced conversions and marriages of minorities, stop targeting political dissidents in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and stop enforced disappearances and unlawful killings of journalists and activists by its security agencies.
India’s response came on the day when Islamabad High Court (IHC) set aside a decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reject the application of Jamaat-ud-Dawah’s (JuD) political front Milli Muslim League (MML) for registration as a political party.
The order came days after a Pakistani court extended a stay against the “possible arrest” of the JuD chief Hafiz Saeed till 4 April. JuD is the parent group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Saeed had earlier said that JuD would contest the 2018 general elections under the banner of the MML.
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