India slams Pakistan's 'juvenile propaganda' on Ayodhya and Kashmir

The remarks came after Pak's Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood commented on the Indian Supreme Court's decision on Ayodhya, which he said was not in line with UNESCO's values of religious freedom

India has lashed out against Pakistan's "juvenile propaganda to malign India through fabricated lies" over the Supreme Court judgment on Ayodhya and on Kashmir, and condemned Islamabad's "pathological compulsion" to comment on India's affairs.

In a strong statement against Pakistan, in its Right to Reply, an Indian official while addressing the 40th UNESCO General Conference - on General Policy Debate, also said that the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh "have always been ours and shall always be an integral part of India and this includes the territory that is currently under the illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan".

"We take this chair to refute Pakistan's juvenile propaganda to malign India through fabricated lies, full of deceit and deception. We condemn the unwarranted comments made by Pakistan on the judgment of the Supreme Court of India.

"The judgement is about the rule of law, equal respect for all faiths, concepts that are alien to Pakistan and its ethos, so while Pakistan's lack of comprehension is not surprising, their pathological compulsion to comment on our internal affairs with the obvious intent of spreading hatred is condemnable," the official said.

"The Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have always been ours and shall always be an integral part of India and this includes the territory that is currently under the illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan."

She said that Unesco's membership "is well aware of its constitution which states that the organisation is prohibited in intervening in matters that are essentially within their domestic jurisdiction."

"Sadly in flagrant violation of the UNESCO constitution, mandate and ethos, and practices, Pakistan's intervention did exactly that, and we reject it," she said.

The remarks came after Pakistan's Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood commented on the Indian Supreme Court's decision on Ayodhya, which he said was not in line with UNESCO's values of religious freedom.

The Indian official continued: "Tragically, the reality facing us is that Pakistan is the world's largest producer and exporter of this evil. Pakistan's political approaches are rooted in terrorist violence and its global engagement is defined by mainstreaming of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft."

Targeting Pakistan, she asked: "In which country were the perpetrators of 9/11 and 26/11 discovered? Where were Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar discovered? Which is the country where organisations such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamaat ud Dawa.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other banned terrorist outfits openly conduct their activities, collect funds from the street and run their offices with the active support of the state machinery?"

"The Army of which country massacred millions of its own citizens just because they spoke a different language? The answer to these questions is Pakistan," she said.

"We, the UNESCO and the international community, certainly do not need Pakistan, a hub of global terrorism, to be waxing eloquent on the internal affairs of India.

"Indeed the entire, peace-loving members of UNESCO would serve humanity well by coming together to impress upon Pakistan to be a normal country and to eschew preaching, practising and propagating terrorism," she said.