‘Pakistan Spreading Falsehood, Attempting to Legitimise Terrorism’: India at UN Security Council

By R Anil Kumar

New York, January 27, 2026. India mounted a sharp and wide-ranging rebuttal against Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council, with Permanent Representative Parvathaneni Harish accusing Islamabad of spreading falsehoods, attempting to legitimise terrorism, and repeatedly violating international commitments.

Speaking at the UNSC, Harish said he was replying to “the comments of the representative of Pakistan, an elected member of the Security Council, which has a single-point agenda to harm my country and my people.”

India’s Permanent Representative rejected Pakistan’s version of events surrounding India’s military actions last year, stating that the envoy had advanced a “false and self-serving account.”

Referring to the April 2025 attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Harish told the Council, “Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killed 26 innocent civilians in a brutal attack.”

“This August body itself called for holding the perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and brought to justice. That is exactly what we did.”

He stressed that India’s response was limited and targeted.

“India’s actions were measured, non-escalatory and responsible, and focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists,” he said, adding that Pakistan had continued to issue threats until early May.

“Till 9th of May, Pakistan was threatening more attacks on India. But on the 10th of May, the Pakistani military called our military directly and pleaded for a cessation to the fighting.”

Harish claimed that Indian operations had inflicted visible damage on Pakistani facilities, noting that “the destruction caused to multiple Pakistani air bases by the Indian operation, including images of destroyed runways and burnt-out hangars, are in the public domain.”

Taking aim at Pakistan’s rhetoric about a “new normal,” the Indian envoy was blunt, “Let me reiterate again that terrorism can never be normalised as Pakistan wishes to do. It is not normal to tolerate Pakistan’s continued use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy.”

“This hallowed chamber cannot become a forum for Pakistan to legitimise terrorism,” he added.

The Indian envoy said that India would do “whatever is required to protect and ensure the safety and security of our citizens.”

Harish also rejected Pakistan’s comments on Kashmir, asserting that “Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on matters that are internal to India,” and reiterating that “the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”

On the Indus Waters Treaty, he said India had signed the agreement “65 years ago in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship,” but accused Pakistan of undermining it through conflict and terrorism.

“Throughout the six and a half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of the treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India. Thousands of Indian lives have been lost in Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks,” he said.

India was therefore compelled to place the treaty in abeyance “until Pakistan, a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism,” he said.

The envoy further urged Pakistan to reflect on its own governance, remarking that it should “introspect about the rule of law” and questioning constitutional changes that he alleged gave extraordinary powers and immunity to its military leadership.

Harish concluded by calling for stronger international legal mechanisms and reforms in multilateral institutions, saying such steps were a “strategic necessity” for the UN to effectively maintain global peace and security.