United Nations | May 21, 2026 - India delivered a sharp rebuke to Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, accusing Islamabad of carrying a "long-tainted record of genocidal acts" and calling it deeply ironic that Pakistan had invoked the situation in Jammu and Kashmir during a session convened to discuss the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made the remarks during the Annual UNSC Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict — a forum Pakistan had used to raise what New Delhi considers a strictly internal matter.
"It is ironic that Pakistan, with its long-tainted record of genocidal acts, has chosen to refer to issues that are strictly internal to India," Ambassador Parvathaneni said, according to remarks released by India's UN mission.
Pakistan's representative had earlier raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the debate, drawing a firm response from India. Ambassador Parvathaneni said that such conduct reflects Pakistan's repeated attempts over decades to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence both within and beyond its borders.
At the centre of India's indictment was a Pakistani airstrike carried out in March during the holy month of Ramadan, which destroyed the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul. The ambassador described the attack as barbaric, targeting a civilian medical facility with no plausible military justification. Citing the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, he said the strike claimed 269 civilian lives and wounded a further 122. The strikes hit as patients were leaving a mosque following tarawih evening prayers. Over 94,000 people were assessed as displaced due to cross-border armed violence perpetrated against Afghan civilians, according to UNAMA.
Ambassador Parvathaneni accused Pakistan of hypocrisy for invoking the principles of international law while targeting innocent civilians in the dark.
He also raised Pakistan's conduct during Operation Searchlight in 1971, saying Pakistan had sanctioned a systematic campaign of genocidal mass rape of 400,000 women by its own army. Operation Searchlight was the Pakistani Army's campaign to suppress the Bangladeshi nationalist movement in what was then East Pakistan, and preceded the war that led to the creation of Bangladesh.
"With no faith, no law, and no morality, the world can see through Pakistan's propaganda," the ambassador said.
The exchange underscored deepening tensions between the two neighbours. India has signalled it will respond forcefully to any future provocations from Pakistan.
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