India on 10 October 2026 issued a sharp demand at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, calling on Pakistan to halt what it described as grave human rights violations by the Pakistani military in the territories it illegally occupies in Kashmir, where a widening civilian uprising has drawn international attention.

India's Statement at the Fourth Committee

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Mahima Kumari Mewar, representing Rajasthan's Rajsamand constituency in the Lok Sabha and serving as part of India's delegation to the General Assembly, delivered the rebuke at the Fourth Committee — the body tasked with decolonisation matters. She exercised India's right of reply after Pakistan's Acting Permanent Representative Usman Jadoon attempted to draw the Kashmir issue into the committee's debate.

'In the last few months, the Pakistani armed forces and their proxies have killed dozens of innocent civilians who were agitating for their basic rights and freedoms and basic necessities,' Mewar said.

She went further, stating: 'We call upon Pakistan to stop the grave and ongoing human rights violations in the areas illegally occupied by it, where the population is in open revolt against Pakistan, its military occupation, repression, brutality, and illegal exploitation of resources.'

The Scale of the Unrest in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir

According to reports, more than 90 people have been killed by Pakistan's security forces, which reportedly put down protests that initially erupted over Islamabad's decision to send outsiders into the region to influence elections. The unrest has since broadened, fuelled by public anger over the exploitation of natural resources, deteriorating living conditions, and rising prices.

A civil society coalition, the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), has emerged as a leading organiser of the broader protest movement. The demonstrations mark one of the most sustained episodes of civilian resistance in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in recent memory.

India's Rebuke of Pakistan's Record

Mewar delivered a pointed rebuke of Pakistan's standing to raise the Kashmir issue internationally. 'A country like Pakistan, with an established record of military dictatorship, sham elections, incarceration of popular elected leaders, religious extremism, and sponsoring terrorism as an instrument of state policy, should, in future, refrain from preaching homilies of this sort at this platform,' she said.

She concluded India's position with an unambiguous assertion: 'Jammu and Kashmir is and always remains an integral and inalienable part of India.'

India's Broader Decolonisation Stand

In her earlier substantive statement to the committee, Mewar reaffirmed India's commitment to the global cause of decolonisation. She noted that while more than 80 countries have broken free of colonial rule, the process 'remains unfinished,' with 17 non-self-governing territories still on the Fourth Committee's agenda. Among the most contentious is the status of the Falkland Islands — also claimed as the Malvinas by Argentina — which produced heated exchanges between Britain and Argentina and its supporters during the session.

What This Signals

India's decision to use the UN decolonisation forum to spotlight conditions in PoK represents a deliberate diplomatic escalation, framing the situation not merely as a bilateral dispute but as an ongoing human rights and colonial-occupation crisis before an international audience. This comes amid a broader Indian diplomatic effort to counter Pakistan's attempts to internationalise the Kashmir question on its own terms. The next General Assembly plenary and committee sessions will be closely watched for any Pakistani response.