New Delhi, Oct 23: India on Friday hit back at Pakistan at the United Nations over its remarks on religious freedom and funeral rights, recalling Islamabad’s refusal to acknowledge the bodies of its soldiers killed during the 1999 Kargil war.
The response came after Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, raised concerns in an interim report over the alleged denial of funeral rights to people killed during security operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
The report flagged the denial of bodies to families and burials conducted at remote locations or in secrecy, stating that such practices disproportionately affected Muslims and were inconsistent with their religious beliefs and customs.
Responding during an interactive dialogue on funeral rights in exceptional circumstances, Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, questioned Pakistan’s credibility on the issue.
“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,” she said.
During the Kargil conflict, the Indian Army recovered the bodies of Pakistani soldiers after Pakistan declined to acknowledge the involvement of its military personnel in the fighting. India has maintained that several of the soldiers were buried with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rites.
Mangalanandan also accused Pakistan of focusing on developments in Jammu and Kashmir while overlooking the situation in areas under its control.
“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.
Raising the issue of religious minorities in Pakistan, the Indian diplomat said Islamabad had no standing to lecture India on minority rights while failing to ensure the safety of its own minority communities.
“A State that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no standing to lecture India,” she said.
Pakistan’s religious minorities include Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, among others.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in its seventh annual report, Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26, released last week, highlighted continuing violations of the rights of minority communities.
The report flagged the alleged misuse of blasphemy laws, forced marriages and conversions, and discriminatory practices among the concerns confronting these communities.
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