'To counter Pak at UNHRC, India must tell Art.370 was about special discrimination'

India must highlight how Article 370 was about special discrimination against the people of Jammu and Kashmir to win support at the 42nd session of United Nations Human Rights Convention (UNHRC) that is scheduled to begin today, said former UN diplomat Mukul Sanwal.

The former diplomat also said that Pakistan has been trying its best to internationalise the issue of Kashmir, especially after India's historic move of revoking Article 370 and Article 35 (A).

"I am sure that Pakistan will raise the Kashmir issue at the UNHRC meeting in Geneva. It has also sent its foreign minister there along with a delegation. They had also said that they will go to any extent on the issue," Sanwal told ANI.

"Now the question is when the UN Security Council had earlier said that there's no role of international mediation for peace as it is an internal issue of India, then why is Pakistan now raising the issue of human rights violations there?" the former diplomat added.

Agreeing with the words of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Sanwal further stressed that the restrictions are temporary measures due to the rise of infiltrators in the Valley.

New Delhi had time and again reiterated that there was no development in the region prior to the abrogation of the special status, the diplomat stated.

"We need to adhere to our stand that 'human rights' is not only related to political or procedural rights but also social-economic rights (which were earlier not there)," he stressed.

"If there are no social-economic rights then the political rights will also become hollow. Only a few families had been ruling the Valley so far," Sanwal said.

"India has to prove this point in order to win support," he added.

Meanwhile, voicing similar sentiments over the issue, another diplomat Suresh Goel, told ANI, "This is nothing new. Pakistan has always tried to raise the Kashmir issue to the world community and attacked India over it."

"But the world has changed. People's perspectives have also undergone changes. The United Nations has a fair idea about India's record regarding human rights. They know the real situation in the Valley. They (world community) will be successful in quashing the fake claims made by Pakistan at the session," he added.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi left for Geneva to attend the UNHRC meeting with an aim to "fight for the cause of innocent Kashmiris", according to reports by Pakistan media.