India on Saturday hit back at Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks at the United Nations General Assembly. First secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Petal Gahlot, referred to the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and Osama bin Laden’s presence near the Pakistani Army’s premier academy while responding to remarks made by Pakistan’s representative.“This afternoon, the General Assembly heard some bizarre remarks from the representative of Pakistan. This happens just a fortnight after New York City and the world marked the 25th anniversary of the horrendous 9-11 terrorist attack. This context is important to keep in mind because its mastermind, Osama bin Laden, was living right on the doorstep of the Pakistani Army’s premier academy. This was the very entity which was the subject of such deep genuflection before us today by the representative of Pakistan. But all this is only to be expected from what Pakistanis themselves call a Form 47 government.”Gahlot also addressed Pakistan’s references to democratic rights and human values, pointing to the situation in its capital and the role of the military in the country’s political system.Gahlot further said, “We heard some hypocritical homilies about democratic rights and human values from a regime whose capital at this very moment is being fortified against its own people. And that, Mr. President, is happening because this is a regime of the army, by the army, and for the army. Their puppets may come and go, but let us have no illusion about who calls the shots. The reality of Pakistan is expressed in its 27th Amendment and the lifelong immunity granted to its real ruler”Earlier, in his address to the UN General Assembly, Sharif and claimed that India’s abeyance over the Indus Water Treaty was not legal.The Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, governs the sharing of the waters of the Indus River system between the two countries. India placed the treaty in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack, stating that the decision would remain in effect until Pakistan takes credible and irreversible action against cross-border terrorism.Amid the prospect of protests over the continued detention of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and an economy in doldrums, Sharif once again sought to internationalise the Kashmir issue.India has repeatedly rejected Pakistan’s references to Jammu and Kashmir at the UN General Assembly and other United Nations platforms, maintaining that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of the country.
