New York: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday (local time) avoided responding to questions about Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed
during his visit to the United Nations headquarters for the 81st UN General Assembly (UNGA). As Sharif arrived at the UN headquarters, journalists questioned him over Pakistan’s alleged sheltering of terrorists. The Pakistani Prime Minister, however, chose not to respond to the queries. Sharif faced similar questions while leaving the UN headquarters, with a reporter asking, “When will you prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed?” He again declined to respond. A video of the exchanges subsequently circulated widely on social media, drawing renewed attention to Pakistan’s record on terrorism and putting Sharif in an embarrassing position during the high-profile UN gathering.
#WATCH | New York, US: "When will you prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed?" ANI questions Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif again as he leaves the UN headquarters. Pakistani PM refuses to answer. pic.twitter.com/hqzw9w3lDM
— ANI (@ANI) September 24, 2026
The incident also revived scrutiny over Hafiz Saeed, the LeT founder who has long been at the centre of international concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
Saeed, a resident of Sargodha in Pakistan's Punjab province, is a designated terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the founder of the proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Saeed is wanted as an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case.
More recently, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also alleged that the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, 2025, was orchestrated by Pakistan-based operatives of the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Its supplementary chargesheet names LeT founder and designated terrorist Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as Accused No. 8, alleging his involvement in the larger conspiracy behind the attack.
A day earlier, India delivered a scathing rebuke to Pakistan at the United Nations, telling Islamabad to direct its energy towards a debt-ridden economy surviving on bailouts rather than harbouring territorial ambitions or sponsoring cross-border terrorism.
Exercising its right of reply at the UN Human Rights Council, Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi dismantled Pakistan's diversionary tactics, asserting that its hostile posturing would do nothing to rescue its failing financial system.
Stating that Pakistan's priorities remain fundamentally misplaced, Kshitij Tyagi remarked, "Pakistan would better serve its people by focusing on development, rather than by coveting territory of others or exporting terror, because neither these nor its theatrics in the Council would help repay the loans its economy survives on."
Kshitij Tyagi further exposed Islamabad's severe domestic hypocrisy, highlighting its suppression of civilians and acute humanitarian crises in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where widespread protests met with lethal state violence and blockades on essential supplies such as food, fuel, and medicine.
Calling out the glaring omissions in Islamabad's governance, Kshitij Tyagi noted, "This Council was told last Friday of scores of civilians killed since June in the territory Pakistan occupies, of students arrested in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and of food and medicine held back. When those accounts were given, Pakistan's answer was a point of order. If any delegation in this room meets every objective criterion for this Council's scrutiny, it is Pakistan."
(With inputs from ANI)
