India slams Pakistan as 'puppet regime' at UNGA — SkimNews
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- India exercised its Right of Reply at UNGA on September 25, 2026 after Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif credited Donald Trump for his 'timely intervention' in the 2025 conflict and raised Kashmir, with First Secretary Petal Gahlot branding Islamabad a 'puppet' regime of 'the army, by the army, and for the army.'
- Pakistan's 27th Constitutional Amendment, passed in November 2025 under the Sharif government, grants lifelong legal immunity to Field Marshal Asim Munir — Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces — whom Gahlot identified as Pakistan's 'real ruler.'
- Petal Gahlot timed her rebuke to the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, reminding the UN that Osama bin Laden was living 'right on the doorstep of the Pakistani Army's premier academy,' and called Sharif's remarks the product of 'bigotry and hatred.'
- Operation Sindoor, launched May 7, 2025 in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack of April 22, 2025 that killed 26 civilians, was invoked by Gahlot as proof India can ensure 'terrorists will have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,' with continued terrorism warned to 'have consequences.'
- Pakistan-occupied Kashmir became India's counter to Sharif's Kashmir pitch, with Gahlot citing Rawalakot and recent elections there marred by protests over 12 contested refugee seats, alleged rigging, and security force crackdowns.
Why it matters: Two nuclear-armed neighbors traded escalatory language at the UN podium days after Sharif publicly credited Trump with brokering a ceasefire — and India's explicit warning that continued terrorism 'will have consequences' signals the diplomatic floor is still low enough to leave room for further military action like Operation Sindoor, which Gahlot pointed to as recent precedent.
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