India launched a sharp and wide-ranging attack on Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council, accusing Islamabad of sponsoring terrorism, undermining democracy and maintaining an “obsessive focus” on harming India and its people. India also firmly rejected Pakistan’s repeated references to Jammu and Kashmir, reiterating that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India.
The strong remarks were delivered by India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, during the UN Security Council Open Debate on “Leadership for Peace”. His intervention came in response to comments made by Pakistan’s representative, who once again raised the Kashmir issue and criticised India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty.
Firm rejection of Pakistan’s Kashmir claims
Ambassador Parvathaneni dismissed Pakistan’s remarks as “unwarranted references” to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He asserted that these territories “were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”, leaving no scope for external interference or debate at international forums.
Calling out Pakistan’s repeated attempts to internationalise the issue, Parvathaneni said Islamabad’s statements reflected an “obsessive focus on harming India and its people”, rather than addressing its own internal challenges.
India’s response followed Pakistan’s claim that Jammu and Kashmir remains an “unresolved dispute” on the UN Security Council’s agenda, a position New Delhi has consistently rejected as baseless and misleading.
Indus Waters Treaty and terror allegations
Addressing Pakistan’s criticism of India’s decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, Ambassador Parvathaneni provided a detailed explanation of New Delhi’s position. He said India had entered into the treaty 65 years ago “in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship”.
“Throughout these six and a half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of the Treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India,” he said, describing Pakistan as the “global epicentre of terror”.
Parvathaneni pointed out that over the past four decades, tens of thousands of Indian lives have been lost due to what he described as Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks. He cited the most recent incident in April this year in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where 26 civilians, including a foreign national, were killed.
“It is in this backdrop that India has finally announced that the Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism,” he said.
Sharp criticism of Pakistan’s democracy
India also took aim at Pakistan’s internal political situation, questioning its commitment to democratic values. Ambassador Parvathaneni referred to the jailing of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the banning of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and what he termed a “constitutional coup”.
“Pakistan, of course, has a unique way of respecting the will of its people — by jailing a Prime Minister, by banning the ruling political party, and by letting its armed forces engineer a constitutional coup through the 27th amendment,” he said.
He further criticised the move to grant lifetime immunity to Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces, Asim Munir, saying it highlighted the imbalance between civilian authority and military power in the country.
India’s warning on countering terrorism
Making India’s stance unequivocally clear, Ambassador Parvathaneni warned that New Delhi would respond decisively to any form of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
“Let me be clear — India will counter Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in all its forms and manifestations with all its might,” he said, drawing attention from delegates present at the debate.
India’s remarks were seen as one of its strongest statements at the UN in recent months, reflecting heightened tensions between the two neighbours over security, terrorism and water-sharing issues.
Pakistan’s response at the UN
Earlier, Pakistan’s representative to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, had reiterated Islamabad’s position that Jammu and Kashmir is an unresolved dispute and criticised India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, calling it a “blatant breach of international obligations”.
“Pakistan seeks peace and stability in South Asia, but peace cannot be a unilateral pursuit,” Ahmad said, linking the issue to Jammu and Kashmir. He claimed that a “just settlement” was required in accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and the “will of the Kashmiri people”.
India has consistently rejected these assertions, maintaining that Jammu and Kashmir is a bilateral issue and that Pakistan has no locus standi to raise it at international platforms.
Conclusion
India’s forceful response at the UN Security Council underscored its firm diplomatic posture on Kashmir, terrorism and regional stability. By combining criticism of Pakistan’s terror record with concerns over its democratic backsliding, New Delhi signalled that it would no longer limit its response to defensive rebuttals.
As tensions persist, India has reiterated that peace in South Asia cannot be achieved unless Pakistan dismantles terror infrastructure and respects democratic norms, making clear that dialogue and treaties cannot coexist with violence and hostility.