Saved Millions Of Refugees From Massacre In Indo-Pak War, Says India At UN

TS Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, on Tuesday said when West Pakistan unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted millions of refugees and saved them from the massacre.

Underlining India's commitment to the humanitarian protection of refugees, TS Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, on Tuesday said when West Pakistan unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted millions of refugees and saved them from the massacre.

Speaking at the UNSC briefing by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Tirumurti said, "In contemporary history, India's hospitality, and assistance for refugee communities from the neighbouring countries is well recorded and appreciated. Be it the Tibetans or our brothers and sisters from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar, India has always responded with compassion and understanding. When West Pakistan unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted millions of refugees and saved them from the massacres."

He said India's humanitarian response to the refugee issue from Bangladesh was one of the most sophisticated and empathetic in contemporary history.

"This may well have represented one of the first instances of the UN's concept of the 'Responsibility to Protect'. If judged by today's standards of human rights and international humanitarian law, the perpetrators should have received a drastically different fate," Mr Tirumurti said.