Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday lambasted the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for its recent report on Kashmir, calling it baseless and said it seemed the report had been written "sitting somewhere else" (not in Jammu and Kashmir, maybe in Pakistan).

"The report was prepared while sitting somewhere else. The assessment made by UNHRC has no basis. They are not aware of the ground realities in Kashmir," the defence minister said in an interaction.

When asked about the UN secretary general's support to the UNHRC report, the minister said one cannot expect him to not back a UN body's report but the fact on the ground was that the Indian Army always respected human rights of people in Kashmir and everywhere it operates.

On 14 June, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Hussein issued a report on the situation in Kashmir, detailing alleged human rights violations and abuses. Reacting to it, the external affairs ministry said the report violated India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also described the report as “fallacious, tendentious and motivated”. This week, India said the report shows “clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information”.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat had also dismissed the recent UN report as "motivated" and asserted that Indian Army's record in this regard is "absolutely above board".