India Tells UN Pakistan Has No Standing to Lecture on Minority Rights

At the United Nations in New York, during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, India's First Secretary at its Permanent Mission, Bhavika Mangalanandan, rose to answer a report on funeral rights in exceptional circumstances. Her statement went well beyond the report. It became a direct rebuttal of Pakistan, which she accused of failing its own minorities while presuming to lecture India on religious freedom and burial rights.

Mangalanandan began with the report itself. She questioned how it handled religious discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it appeared to place discriminatory practices and shortcomings almost entirely in the Global South. "What benefit does a report derive by not mentioning similar tragic situations in the developed world?" she asked. She warned against turning human suffering to political use, saying that deriving political mileage from people's pain and loss should not be what special rapporteurs base their relevance on. Reports on religious freedom, she argued, should address violations impartially instead of picking incidents selectively.

She then turned to the report's position on the funeral rights of terrorists. A terrorist, she said, kills innocent people and damages the psyche of a nation. She called it telling that fervent advocacy for the rights of those who violate the right to life does not extend in the same way to the victims of terrorism.

The sharpest passage concerned the 1999 Kargil conflict. Mangalanandan called it deeply ironic that a state that did not accept the bodies of its own soldiers killed in combat there now speaks with fervour about faith, religious freedom and burials. She added a reminder: the Indian Army buried a number of Pakistani soldiers with military honours and according to Islamic rites.

She also addressed Pakistan's commentary on Jammu and Kashmir. Its obsession with the Indian Union Territory, she said, should be redirected to developments in the parts of Jammu and Kashmir it occupies illegally, and she named Rawalakot as an example. On Pakistan's own minorities she was blunt: their numbers are shrinking and their rights are regularly abused, and a state that cannot ensure their safety has no standing to lecture India.

The remarks arrived amid fresh attention to the treatment of minorities in Pakistan. The Express Tribune reported that participants at an interfaith dialogue in Hyderabad, organised by the Christian Study Circle, raised concerns about the abduction of Hindu girls, forced conversions and marriages, and weak enforcement of laws meant to protect religious minorities in Sindh. The gathering brought together political representatives, religious figures, lawyers and social activists, who called for coordinated action against religious extremism and discrimination. Former National Assembly member Neelam Kumari alleged that Hindu girls continue to face abductions and forced conversions, and said existing legal safeguards have had limited effect because they are poorly implemented.

Separately, experts cited by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that coercion and inadequate legal protections are enabling forced conversions through marriage, particularly affecting Hindu and Christian communities. They stressed that conversion must be voluntary and that child marriage undermines consent under international law. They also pointed to the vulnerability of adolescent girls in Sindh, where poverty and marginalisation can expose victims to abuse, psychological trauma and social stigma.

The source records no public response from Pakistan. What to watch is whether the Special Rapporteur answers India's criticism of the report, and whether the renewed reporting on abductions and conversions in Sindh prompts any official action.