India Hits Back at Pakistan in UNGA
“Terrorism by Pakistan will have consequences”
Synopsis
India launched a sharp rebuttal at the United Nations after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in his address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Friday, September 25, 2026, criticized New Delhi over the Indus Waters Treaty and renewed Islamabad’s long-standing call for international intervention on Kashmir. Exercising India's right of reply at the UN, Petal Gahlot, First Secretary at India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, accused Pakistan of hypocrisy on issues of terrorism, religious freedom and minority rights.
‘Security During the Day, Terrorism at Night’
In one of her sharpest attacks, Gahlot said Pakistan claimed to uphold security while carrying out terrorism, alleging a long-standing pattern of cross-border terrorism.
Gahlot said, “The views we heard emanate from those with a long record of bigotry and hatred. They claim to uphold security during the day; they actually carry out terrorism at night.”
She said India had demonstrated that terrorists would have “nowhere to run and nowhere to hide” and warned that New Delhi would continue exercising its right to defend itself against terrorism.
Gahlot also said continued terrorism from Pakistan would have consequences and could affect understandings previously based on “friendship and goodwill”.
India Challenges Pakistan’s Kashmir Narrative
Turning specifically to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Gahlot urged the international community to consider allegations of violence and denial of basic rights there.
She referred to Rawalakot and alleged “wanton killings”, brutality and denial of rights experienced by residents. India's representative concluded by accusing Pakistan of repeatedly using falsehoods and presenting a misleading picture of its policies before the international community.
Gahlot said, “Reiterating falsehoods year after year does not make them true.” She further added that Pakistan’s “terrorism, deceit, and duplicity” would neither benefit the country nor the wider world.
She also rejected Pakistan’s criticism of India on religious issues, saying: “This assembly was subjected to remarks about religious intolerance from the very regime whose mainstay is blasphemy laws. The world knows how minorities are treated in Pakistan. No pious platitude can mislead it.”
Sharif Warns Over Indus Waters Treaty
The diplomatic exchange followed Sharif’s speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he warned that any attempt to disrupt Pakistan’s share of the waters under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) would be viewed as an “act of war”.
The Pakistani Prime Minister described the Indus River system as vital to his country and argued that India had no legal grounds to suspend the decades-old water-sharing arrangement.
Sharif told the Assembly, “The shared waters of the Indus River system are the lifeblood not only for the people of Pakistan, but for the entire region. India's unilateral decision to hold the existing treaty in abeyance has no legal basis whatsoever.”
He further claimed that both UN experts and the Court of Arbitration had rejected India's stance on the treaty.
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, governs the sharing of water from the Indus River system between India and Pakistan. New Delhi placed the treaty in abeyance after the Pahalgam terror attack, stating that the suspension would remain in force until Pakistan takes “credible and irreversible action” against cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan Revives Kashmir Issue at UN
Alongside the water dispute, Sharif used his UNGA address to once again raise the Kashmir issue, calling for what he described as a “just and fair solution” to the decades-old dispute.
He said the people of Kashmir had waited for the United Nations to fulfil what he called its commitment to hold a “free and impartial plebiscite” under UN auspices.
Sharif said, “For eight decades, the Kashmiri people have waited for the United Nations to fulfill its solemn commitment to a free and impartial plebiscite under its auspices.”
He further alleged that generations of Kashmiris had faced “illegal occupation, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, sexual violence, and collective punishment”. He added, “But this requires a just and fair solution to the Kashmir dispute.”
Jaishankar Takes Dig at Pakistani Journalist
Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday responded sharply to a Pakistani reporter who accused India of promoting terrorism in Pakistan. During a media interaction at the United Nations headquarters, Jaishankar said, “A terrorist country is asking me this question.”
After responding to the journalist, Jaishankar smiled and walked away. The exchange took place while the minister was answering questions on India’s foreign policy, global security and the international fight against terrorism.