External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar delivered a pointed rebuff to a Pakistani journalist who attempted to raise a question on terrorism during a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday.
Jaishankar was addressing the press alongside Liberia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, on the Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. The briefing had been announced as remarks-only before it began.
Towards the end of the event, a Pakistani reporter interrupted and sought to raise a question, asking, "When will your government stop sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan?"
Jaishankar responded firmly, "A terrorist country is asking me that question. Come on."
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Harish Parvathaneni, stepped in immediately after, telling the reporter, "You have heard your reply. You have heard your response, loud and clear."
The exchange came a day after an Indian journalist had confronted Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as he entered the UN building, asking him, "When will you stop harbouring terrorists?"
Jaishankar is in New York leading the Indian delegation for the High-Level Week of the UNGA's 81st session. He is scheduled to address the High-Level Session on Saturday and has held a series of bilateral and plurilateral meetings during the visit.
India's position on cross-border terrorism
India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of allowing terrorist groups to operate from its territory and has called on Islamabad to take credible and verifiable action against cross-border terrorism.
New Delhi has maintained that its military response following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 civilians, was an exercise of its right to self-defence. India subsequently launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
References to the Pahalgam attack and terrorism have featured in outcome documents at multiple multilateral forums, including a UN Security Council press statement issued in April 2025.
The Resistance Front (TRF), which India has described as a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States on July 18, 2025.
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India has maintained that TRF was involved in the Pahalgam attack. The 36th monitoring report of the UN Security Council's 1267 Sanctions Committee, issued in July last year, also referred to TRF's links to the attack.
Pakistan and FATF scrutiny
Pakistan was placed on the Financial Action Task Force's grey list three times, with its most recent period of enhanced monitoring running from June 2018 to October 2022. During that period, Pakistan was required to strengthen measures to identify and disrupt terrorist financing and prosecute individuals involved in funding terrorist organisations.
India has argued that FATF scrutiny forced Pakistan to act against several known terrorists and terrorist-financing networks, including individuals linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
(With inputs from ANI)
