‘Obsessive focus on harming India, its people’ : Indian envoy blasts Pakistan over 'unwarranted' claims on Jammu & Kashmir

India on Monday rejected Pakistan’s remarks on Jammu and Kashmir at a United Nations Security Council debate, saying the comments were “unwarranted” and that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral part of India.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, said Pakistan once again used a UN platform to push its claims, showing what he described as an “obsessive focus on harming India and its people”.

“I refer to the statement made by the representative of Pakistan today. India would like to reiterate that the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India. They were, are, and will always remain so. Pakistan’s unwarranted reference to Jammu & Kashmir in today’s open debate attests to its obsessive focus on harming India and its people,” Parvathaneni said.

He added that a country serving as a non-permanent member of the Security Council should not use UN meetings to push a divisive agenda.

“A serving non-permanent Security Council member that chooses to further this obsession in all meetings and platforms of the UN in pursuit of its divisive agenda cannot be expected to fulfil its designated responsibilities and obligations,” he said.

The Indian envoy also described Pakistan as the “global epicentre of terror” and defended India’s decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.

Parvathaneni said India signed the treaty 65 years ago in good faith, but Pakistan repeatedly violated its spirit by waging wars and supporting terror attacks against India.

“India has entered into the Indus Waters Treaty, 65 years ago, in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship. Throughout these six and a half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of the Treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India,” he said.

Referring to the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, he said 26 civilians were killed in religion-based targeted killings by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, adding, “In the last four decades, tens of thousands of Indians have been lost in Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks, the most recent of which was the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025, which involved religion-based targeted killings of 26 innocent civilians by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.”

He said India would keep the treaty in abeyance until Pakistan ends support for terrorism.

“It is in this backdrop that India has finally announced that the Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan, which is a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism,” Parvathaneni said.

The envoy also criticised Pakistan’s internal political situation, referring to the jailing of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the banning of the ruling party and changes made through the 27th amendment.

Parvathaneni ended by saying India would respond firmly to terrorism.

“Let me be clear – India will counter Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in all its forms and manifestations with all its might,” he said.

The response came after Pakistan’s representative once again raised claims of an “unresolved dispute” over Jammu and Kashmir and criticised India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty.