NEW YORK – Pakistan has issued a sharp rebuttal to India’s stance on Jammu and Kashmir, accusing New Delhi of presenting a “recycled script of distortions” at the United Nations.
Speaking at the 4th Committee meeting on decolonization matters,
Asif Khan, a diplomat from Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN, stated this while speaking at 4th Committee meeting on decolonization matters.
“Each year, India comes to this august forum with a recycled script of distortions. Today is no different,” Khan said, as he exercised Pakistan’s Right of Reply in response to India’s earlier remarks. His address underscored Pakistan’s longstanding position that Jammu and Kashmir is not an internal matter of India, but an internationally recognized dispute pending resolution.
Khan reminded the committee that the “United Nations has a duty” to address the Kashmir issue. “Jammu and Kashmir is not, and has never been, an integral part of India,” he asserted. “It is an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status is to be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations, as prescribed in multiple Security Council resolutions.”
Citing international law, Khan referenced the 1960 UN Declaration on decolonization and the UN Charter itself, stating that “all peoples under alien subjugation have the right to self-determination.” He also noted that the right is enshrined in major human rights covenants.
Touching on what he called India’s “settler-colonial project,” the Pakistani diplomat condemned New Delhi’s actions since August 2019, which he claimed violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. “India maintains one of the densest military occupations in the world, deploying nearly 900,000 troops against an unarmed civilian population,” he said.
He also challenged India’s portrayal of Kashmiri resistance as terrorism. “India rather needs to introspect to find the real reasons behind the mass resistance in the occupied territory,” Khan argued, citing extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, mass incarcerations, and demographic engineering as ongoing issues.
The Pakistani representative went further, accusing India of sponsoring terrorism in the region. “While it masquerades as a victim, the truth is that India is the principal sponsor of state terrorism in the region with a dubious distinction of extra-territorial assassinations,” he alleged. He specifically named TTP, BLA, and the Majeed Brigade as Indian-financed proxies responsible for attacks in Pakistan.
In a broader critique of India’s domestic policies, Khan called into question India’s democratic credentials. “India’s claim to be the world’s largest democracy is hollow. In reality, it has become the world’s largest producer of disinformation and intolerance,” he stated, accusing the ruling RSS-BJP alliance of institutionalizing Islamophobia and persecuting minorities.
On the issue of regional security, the minister alleged that India engaged in unprovoked aggression earlier in the year, targeting Pakistani civilians. He said Pakistan responded within its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. “India suffered significant losses, including multiple aircraft downed,” he noted, crediting Pakistan’s measured response with preventing further escalation.
Khan concluded with a resolute message: “Jammu and Kashmir remains a disputed territory. The people of Kashmir have waited for over seven decades to exercise their UN-mandated right to self-determination.”
He reaffirmed Pakistan’s continued support for the Kashmiri people, vowing to “expose India’s hypocrisy, oppose its state terrorism, and support the Kashmiri people’s just and legitimate struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom.”
