United Nations, October 23, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India has accused a United Nations special rapporteur on religious freedom of bias in a report on funeral rights, alleging that it selectively highlighted cases in the Global South while overlooking similar incidents in developed countries and failing to acknowledge the impact of terrorism.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Thursday, First Secretary of India’s UN Mission Bhavika Mangalanandan criticised a report by Nazila Ghanea, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, titled “Freedom of Religion or Belief and Funeral Rights in Exceptional Circumstances”.
“Deriving political mileage out of people’s pain and loss should not be a topic that SRs should base relevance on,” Mangalanandan said.
She questioned what she described as an imbalance in the report’s treatment of terrorism victims and those accused of terrorist activities.
“We are surprised that the fervent advocacy for the rights of terrorists who violate the most sacred right of humans, the right to life, does not similarly extend to the victims of terrorism,” she said, adding that terrorism also damages a nation’s collective psyche.
The report alleged that the bodies of people killed during security operations in Jammu and Kashmir were not returned to their families and were buried in remote locations. It also referred to restrictions imposed on some people killed during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, citing law-and-order concerns.
Mangalanandan further questioned why the report highlighted alleged discriminatory funeral practices during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Global South without mentioning similar incidents in developed countries. She cited reports of thousands of Covid-19 victims in New York City being buried in mass graves on an isolated island.
Responding to allegations raised by Pakistan during the meeting, the Indian diplomat recalled the 1999 Kargil conflict and said the Indian Army had buried several Pakistani soldiers with military honours and in accordance with Islamic rites, while accusing Pakistan of failing to accept the bodies of its own soldiers killed in combat.
She also criticised Pakistan over the treatment of minorities and urged Islamabad to address conditions in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir rather than focus on India.
Ghanea, a professor of international human rights law at the University of Oxford, serves as an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
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