India and Pakistan Clash Over Kashmir at UN General Assembly

After raising Kashmir in his address to the UN General Assembly, Pakistan's caretaker leader came under fire from India. According to Delhi, Pakistan should stop using "technical sophistry" and instead take action against the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks since it is the "home and patron" of the majority of the world's terrorist organizations that are outlawed.

Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, the acting prime minister of Pakistan, brought up the Kashmir issue during the General Debate on Friday during the high-level 78th session of the UNGA, prompting India's First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, Petal Gahlot, to use India's Right of Reply in the UNGA.

"The majority of the world's terrorist organizations and individuals have had their headquarters and financial support in Pakistan. Gahlot responded with a harsh retort, saying, "Instead of engaging in technical sophistry, we call upon Pakistan to take genuine and verifiable action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, whose victims still do not have justice 15 years later.

For South Asia to be at peace, she said Pakistan must take three steps.

"First, halt international terrorism and swiftly dismantle its infrastructure. Second, leave the illegally and forcibly occupied Indian territory, and third, put an end to Pakistan's severe and ongoing abuses of its minority populations' human rights. In his earlier speech, Kakar stated that Pakistan wanted to have positive relations with all of its neighbors, including India. "Kashmir is the key to peace between Pakistan and India," he declared.

Gahlot reaffirmed that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are Union Territories and so a part of India.

"Matters relating to J&K and Ladakh UTs are wholly internal to India. No one from Pakistan has the right to weigh in on our internal affairs. The young Indian envoy stated that Pakistan "would do well to put its own house in order before venturing to point a finger at the world's largest democracy" because it has one of the worst records in the world when it comes to minority and women's rights.

India emphasized that Pakistan has abused the august United Nations venue to spread "baseless and malicious" propaganda against India, and that it has become a "habitual offender" in this regard.

Gahlot claimed that Pakistan does this to "deflect the international community's attention away from its own abysmal record on human rights" and that the United Nations and other multilateral organizations are well aware of this.

Gahlot referred to the widespread "brutality" committed against the minority Christian community in Jaranwala in Pakistan's Faisalabad district in August 2023, where a total of 19 churches were destroyed and 89 Christian homes were set on fire as a "glaring example" of the systemic violence against minorities in that nation.

"Similar treatment has been meted out to the Ahmadiyyas whose places of worship" have been destroyed.

According to her, the situation of women who are members of minority communities in Pakistan, particularly Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, is still appalling.

Gahlot continued, "According to a recent report released by Pakistan's own human rights commission, it is estimated that every year in Pakistan, 1000 women from minority communities are victims of abduction, forced conversion, and marriage."

Invoking Islamabad's right to respond to India's reaction, a Pakistani official spoke up.

The Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Foreign Ministers of Pakistan frequently bring up the Jammu and Kashmir issue in their yearly addresses to the high-level General Assembly sessions. India dispatches its young female and male diplomats posted at its Permanent Mission in New York to respond sharply and forcefully.