United Nations, Oct 3: India has accused Pakistan’s “Form 47” military rulers of weaponising terrorism as a distraction from domestic discontent that is being suppressed by killing civilians in the area of Kashmir it illegally occupies and within its country.
“Instead of addressing domestic discontent, Pakistan seeks to distract by fomenting instability in India and sponsoring, inciting, abetting, and financing cross‑border terrorism in my country for more than three decades,” said Bhavika Mangalanandan, a First Secretary in India’s UN Mission. She invoked “Form 47,” an election document that the military rulers manipulated to put the pliable government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as its proxy in Islamabad in 2024, and it has metamorphosed into a meme of ridicule.
Mangalanandan said the only human rights violation taking place in Kashmir is perpetrated by the armed forces of Pakistan and their terrorist proxies, exercising the right of reply to Pakistan’s allegations against India in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian, and cultural issues. She said making accusations against India is a desperate attempt by Pakistan to mask the ongoing tragedy in Rawalakot and its other cities, the killing of hundreds of civilians, and the brutal crackdown across Pakistan‑occupied Jammu and Kashmir, for merely demanding bread, electricity, and human dignity. According to human rights groups, over 90 people have been killed in recent months in Pakistan‑occupied Kashmir (PoK) alone, where the government has brutally put down a popular movement for economic rights and against importing people from elsewhere to take over the area and against election manipulation.
By contrast, Jammu and Kashmir held assembly elections in 2024 with a massive turnout, followed by a peaceful transfer of power to an elected government. The contrast could not have been starker. We all know that the so‑called civilian governments in Pakistan serve at the mercy of their army and rarely complete their terms. The union territories of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh were, are, and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India.
