India on Saturday gave a stinging reply to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s statements during his address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday.
Exercising India’s right to reply, diplomat Petal Gehlot called Sharif’s remarks “bizarre” and reminded the Assembly that Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks, was found living in Pakistan.
“The US just observed the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Its mastermind was living at the doorsteps of Pakistan’s Army’s premier academy,” she pointed out.
Sharif on Friday used the UN General Assembly podium to credit US President Donald Trump for his “timely intervention” in the 2025 conflict with India, as he again raked up the Kashmir issue in his address to the world organisation.
Calling out Pakistan’s hypocrisy on terrorism, India said that it “claims to uphold security by day and perpetrates terrorism by night.”
“We demonstrated last year that terrorists will have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Our right to defend ourselves against terrorism will be exercised. And continued terrorism by Pakistan will have consequences,” the Indian diplomat said.
India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. US President Trump has repeatedly claimed, as recently as in his address to the UN General Assembly this week, that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan. New Delhi has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
India also called on the UN Assembly “to recognise Pakistan and its policies for what they are, not what its representatives mendaciously present.”
“Reiterating falsehood year after year will not make it true. Pakistan’s duplicity and deceit will neither benefit it nor the world.”
In his about 23-minute address, Sharif also raised the issue of Kashmir, saying that to ensure South Asia never reaches that precipice of the conflict of 2025 again, a just and fair solution to the Kashmir issue is required.
Calling Jammu and Kashmir an “integral and inalienable part of India,” Gehlot pointed to human rights violations in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
“Let’s turn focus to PoK. Ask the people of Rawalkot about the wanton killings and human rights violations by the Pakistan government there,” she said.
Slamming Pakistan’s “hypocritical homilies” about democratic values and human rights, the Indian representative pointed out Islamabad’s own record. “Pakistan is the regime of the army, for the army and by the army. Their puppets may change, but the army continues to call the shots.”
On Sharif’s reference to religious tolerance, India pointed out Islamabad’s own record. “The Pakistani regime has blasphemy laws as its mainstay. The world knows how Pakistan treats its minorities.”
In his speech, Sharif also spoke about the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which India has said will be held in abeyance until Pakistan, a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism.
India decided to put the IWT in abeyance as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures unveiled soon after the Pahalgam terror attack.
