NEW DELHI:
Pakistan's foreign office has linked the murder of Kashmiri journalist
Shujaat Bukhari to his tweet on the UN's human rights report on Jammu & Kashmir which was released yesterday.
It called a "terrible coincidence" the fact that Bukhari was murdered "within hours of his tweet" on the UN report which India has called "fallacious, tendentious and motivated".
"Kashmiri journalist Shujjat Bukhari's targeted killing within hours of his tweet on the OHCHR report on Jammu & Kashmir - terrible coincidence, raises serious questions - India should investigate and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," tweeted Mohammad Faisal, spokesman of Pakistan's foreign affairs ministry. OHCHR - Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - is the full name of the UN body that released the report.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday released its first-ever report on alleged human rights violation in Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and demanded an international probe into it.
Pakistan's foreign office conveniently left out the fact that even PoK doesn't come out smelling of roses in the UN report.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah slammed Pakistan for politicising Bukhari's murder.
"If you had to politicise Shujaat's death the least you could have done is show him the basic courtesy of getting his name right - it's Bukhari not Bukhara or is that too much to ask?," he tweeted. Turns out Pakistan's foreign office spelled Bukhari's first name wrong as well.
Abdullah also said Pakistan can never resist "playing in Kashmir's troubled waters".
The Centre as well as the opposition Congress party called the UN's report prejudiced. Congress spokesman RS Surjewala yesterday said his party rejected the UN report.
Earlier, the Centre too said India rejected the report that alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.
"India rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent in bringing out such a report. It is a selective compilation of largely unverified information. It is overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative."
The government said the UN report is a selective compilation of largely unverified information.
"The report violates India's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the ministry of external affairs said.
Shujaat Bukhari