Pakistan Slams India as ‘Regional Bully’ in UNGA Clash

Pakistan has accused India of being a “regional bully” during a heated exchange at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), after an Indian diplomat branded the country “terroristan,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported Sunday.

The confrontation took place on the fifth day of the 80th UNGA session in New York, where representatives from the two nuclear-armed neighbours traded sharp words. Indian delegate Rentala Srinivas labelled Pakistan a terrorist state, asserting that “no arguments or untruths can ever whitewash the crimes of Terroristan.”

Responding through the Right of Reply, Muhammad Rashid, Second Secretary at Pakistan’s Mission to the UN, condemned the remarks as “utterly shameful” and an “undignified” attempt to distort the name of a fellow UN member state. He said India itself was “not just a serial perpetrator of terrorism, but a regional bully holding South Asia hostage to its hegemonic designs and radical ideology.”

Rashid further accused Indian intelligence of financing and directing groups engaged in sabotage and targeted killings abroad, adding that New Delhi’s actions undermined regional stability and exposed “the duplicity of India’s counterterrorism claims.”

The Pakistani diplomat also dismissed earlier remarks by Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who suggested that Pakistan was at the “epicentre of global terrorism.” Rashid argued that Pakistan had been a frontline state in the fight against extremism and had suffered enormous losses in combating terrorism.

Highlighting human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Rashid said India engaged in “state terrorism” through extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and collective punishment under the guise of counterterrorism operations.

He urged the international community to take note of India’s “reckless behaviour,” insisting that such rhetoric “diminishes India’s own credibility” and reflects “pettiness on the world stage.”

Reaffirming Islamabad’s commitment to peace, Rashid called on India to abandon threats and intimidation in favour of “sincerity, mutual respect, dialogue and diplomacy.”

The exchange followed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address to the UNGA on Friday, in which he stressed the need for “proactive, not provocative” leadership in South Asia, citing India’s recent actions against Pakistan.

Relations between the two countries remain tense following decades of conflict, four wars, and a flare-up earlier this year after Indian air strikes in Pakistan over an attack in occupied Kashmir. While US mediation eased the crisis, diplomatic ties have since deteriorated sharply.