United Nations: India called out Pakistan’s hypocrisy in claiming to champion international law while brutally killing civilians in Afghanistan, even during the Islamic holy month and targeting civilian patients leaving the mosque after evening prayers.
India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish reminded the Security Council on Wednesday (local time), “The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has reported that in the first three months of 2026, 750 civilian deaths and injuries were documented in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border armed violence perpetrated by Pakistani military forces, most of which occurred due to air strikes.”
Participating in an open debate convened by the month’s president, China, on “Protection of civilians in armed conflict”, Harish responded to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad’s diatribe against India as he brought up Kashmir.
Harish said, “With no faith, no law, and no morality, the world can see through Pakistan’s propaganda”.
“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”, he said.
He added, “It is hypocritical to espouse high principles of international law while targeting innocent civilians in the dark”.
Quoting extensively from UNAMA’s Human Rights Service report “Cross-border civilian casualties in Afghanistan”, released on May 10, India’s Permanent Representative highlighted a Pakistani attack on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Afghanistan.
“It was during the holy month of Ramadan in March this year, at a time of peace, reflection, and mercy, that Pakistan conducted a barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul”, he said.
“According to UNAMA, this cowardly and unconscionable act of violence claimed the lives of 269 civilians and injured a further 122 in a facility which can by no means be justified as a military target”, he said.
Quoting UNAMA, he emphasised that “the air strikes by Pakistan occurred at the conclusion of tarawih evening prayers, when numerous patients were leaving the masjid”.
Over 94,000 people became refugees due to Pakistan’s cross-border violence perpetrated against Afghan civilians, he said.
“Such heinous acts of aggression by Pakistan should not come as a surprise from a country that bombs its own people and conducts systematic genocide”, Harish said, referring to the genocide committed by Islamabad during Bangladesh’s freedom struggle.
“During Operation Searchlight in 1971, Pakistan sanctioned the systematic campaign of genocidal mass rape of 400,000 women citizens by its own army”, he said.
“Such inhuman conduct reflects Pakistan’s repeated attempts over decades to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence both within and beyond its borders”, he added.
The UNAMA report covering the first three months of the year recorded Pakistan’s attacks across Afghanistan.
It said that 72 women, 48 girls and 95 boys were among the victims of Pakistani attacks.
The report pointed out that international humanitarian law prohibits attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, and requires that “parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants”.
“Medical personnel and facilities are explicitly afforded special protections under international humanitarian law”, it added.
(IANS)
