India's scathing attack on Pak at UNSC: ‘9/11 architects didn’t hide in caves'

The “architects” behind the 9/11 attacks were not hiding in “caves or badlands,” India said in a scathing attack at Pakistan at the UNSC on Thursday. India accused its neighbour of providing a “permissive environment” that allowed those 9/11 attack to evade detection.

India argued that the same environment continues to support terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, India’s Permanent Representative Harish Parvathaneni pointed to the history of the September 11, 2001 attacks, noting that al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were ultimately located in populated areas rather than remote hideouts, news agency PTI reported.

"The international community supported the global campaign to counter terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Let us not forget, however, that al-Qaeda's terror ecosystem established its strategic depth beyond Afghanistan through its affiliates," Parvathaneni said on Wednesday.

Parvathaneni named several al-Qaeda leaders involved in planning and carrying out the September 11, 2001 attacks, noting that they were subsequently captured in Pakistani cities.

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“The leaders of al-Qaeda who conceived and directed these 9/11 attacks did not escape justice in the wilderness of some ungoverned frontier,” Parvathaneni said.

He said Osama bin Laden, who ordered and financed the 9/11 plot, was eventually tracked down and killed during Operation Neptune Spear at a fortified compound in a settled and guarded community.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described as the principal architect of the attacks, was found hiding in a residential house, while Ramzi Binalshibh, who helped coordinate the hijacker cell after being denied a visa to join the plot, was captured in an urban area, he said.

Parvathaneni also cited the capture of senior al-Qaeda operative Walid bin Attash, who was involved in selecting and preparing several of the hijackers. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a key financial and logistical facilitator of the attacks, was also captured under similar circumstances, he added.

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"In each case, these were not fugitives hiding in caves or badlands, they were men who had long evaded detection. Draining this swamp that provided an enabling environment for such monsters of humankind to prosper is important," Parvathaneni said, in a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan, according to PTI.

He said that "the same permissive environment that sheltered the architects of 9/11 has, in the years since, continued to provide space, support, and impunity to affiliates of al-Qaeda such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and their like, acquiring different identities to escape this Council's sanctions framework and whose leadership and terror training infrastructure have been shielded from consequence.”

He called upon the international community to come together and address the continuity of such a sanctuary so that more such individuals are not thrust upon any country.

"The international community must join hands to address the continuity of such a sanctuary to ensure that more such individuals are not thrust upon any country or its citizens and no one loses family and loved ones," he said.

25 years of 9/11

Last week, as the world commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks carried out by al-Qaeda, members of the UN Security Council, including Pakistan, visited the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan.

Osama bin Laden was captured and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Rawalpindi in March 2003 and is currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid bin Attash were captured in Karachi within a few months of each other, while Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003.

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"Last week, we honoured the memory of those taken mercilessly away by the scourge of terrorism 25 years ago in this very city. Earlier this month, the Council members visited the site of this horrible tragedy. May the memory of these victims always remain a motivation to not only fight against all such individuals who are the worst of humanity, but also those who aid, abet, finance and support their crimes," Parvathaneni said.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz had taken his fellow Security Council Ambassadors to the 9/11 memorial.

"We reinforced our shared commitment to peace, security, and a world free from terror," Waltz had said.

Pakistan currently sits in the Security Council as a non-permanent member, and its envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad was among the UN ambassadors who visited the 9/11 memorial site.

India raises concerns over Afghan refugees

India also expressed deep concern over the humanitarian situation facing Afghans returning to the country.

According to the UN Secretary-General’s report on Afghanistan, 2.9 million Afghans returned in 2025. By August 22, 2026, a further 1.15 million had returned, with most of these returns being involuntary.

"A forcible return of this nature that is neither safe nor dignified, of over three million individuals, in any other part of the world would have elicited a political outcry in this Council, urgent provision of large-scale humanitarian support and efforts to ensure better re-integration and assimilation. That there is no such reaction is a sad reflection on the times," Parvathaneni said.

India reiterated that the return of Afghan refugees should be voluntary, safe and dignified, with sustained international support for their reintegration. As part of these efforts, India is working with UN agencies and Afghan authorities to provide housing, food and other essential supplies to help alleviate the severe hardships faced by returnees.

India also strongly condemned what it described as “trade and transit terror” against Afghanistan, saying such actions violate UN declarations concerning Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), WTO norms, the UN Charter, international law and basic principles of humanitarian compassion.