India and Pakistan spar at the UN after Shehbaz Sharif compares people in Kashmir to Palestinians

India and Pakistan clashed over Kashmir at the UN General Assembly after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif drew parallels between the people of the Himalayan region and the Palestinians.

Kashmir is at the heart of a decades-old dispute between India and Pakistan, with both countries claiming the region as their own but controlling only parts of it.

“Similarly, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, like the people of Palestine, have also fought for their freedom and right to self-determination for a century,” Sharif claimed in his speech on Friday.

“Instead of pursuing peace, India has reneged on its commitments to implement the Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

The United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in 1948 called on the governments of the new dominions India and Pakistan not to aggravate the situation in Kashmir in any way.

He asserted that to “ensure lasting peace,” India must “roll back the unilateral and illegal measures it took five years ago.” New Delhi should “engage in dialogue for a peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” Sharif added.

The Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the semi-autonomous status of the Muslim-majority region and downgraded the former state to a federally administered territory. It was also divided into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, which were governed directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to govern the areas.

Sharif also accused India of extrajudicial killings, extended curfews and other “draconian measures” in the region.

India used its right to reply to the General Assembly to hit back at Pakistan, calling Sharif’s speech a “mockery”.

“A country, ruled by its military, with a global reputation for terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy,” said the First Secretary of India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Bhavika Mangalanandan.

She accused Pakistan of “weaponizing cross-border terrorism against its neighbors for a long time.”

“For such a country to talk about violence anywhere is hypocrisy at its worst.”

Pakistan has routinely raised the Kashmir row at the UN, which always provokes a response from India.

For the first time in five years since the abrogation of special status, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refrained from mentioning Kashmir in his speech to the UN.

“We maintain our will to develop our relations with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), which bring together emerging economies,” he said.

At least 41,586 Palestinians have been killed and 96,210 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza in almost a year, according to Israel’s Health Ministry. The war began in retaliation against Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250.