India launched a sharp attack on Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, drawing a link between the hiding places of al-Qaeda leaders involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks and what it described as the continued availability of safe space for terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Speaking at a UNSC meeting on Afghanistan, India’s Permanent Representative Harish Parvathaneni said the “architects” of the 911 attacks were not hiding in “caves or badlands”, but had evaded detection while living in settled communities. He also raised concerns over the humanitarian situation of Afghan returnees and called for all returns to be voluntary, safe and dignified.

India Links 9/11 Leaders To Settled Communities

Recalling the September 11 attacks, Parvathaneni said the international community had supported the global campaign against terrorism after 911. However, he said al-Qaeda’s terror ecosystem had established strategic depth beyond Afghanistan through its affiliates.

“Let us not forget, however, that al-Qaeda’s terror ecosystem established its strategic depth beyond Afghanistan through its affiliates,” he said.

Parvathaneni referred to several senior al-Qaeda figures linked to the 911 attacks who were captured in Pakistani cities. He said the circumstances of their arrests demonstrated that they had not been hiding in remote, ungoverned areas.

“The leaders of al-Qaeda who conceived and directed these 911 attacks did not escape justice in the wilderness of some ungoverned frontier,” he said.

He said Osama bin Laden, who ordered and financed the plot, was “tracked down and killed in a fortified compound within a settled, guarded community under Operation Neptune Spear.”

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom Parvathaneni described as “the principal architect of the operation”, was found sheltering in an ordinary residential house. Ramzi Binalshibh, who coordinated the hijacker cell after being denied a visa to join them, was also sheltering in an urban centre, he said.

The Indian envoy further said senior al-Qaeda operative Walid bin Attash, who helped select and prepare several hijackers, was captured separately. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, described as a key financial and logistical facilitator of the 911 operation, was also captured under similar circumstances.

India Targets ‘Permissive Environment’ For Terror Groups

“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.

He argued that the conditions that allowed the 911 conspirators to remain hidden had continued to provide space for other terror organisations.

“the same permissive environment that sheltered the architects of 911 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.”

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

His remarks came after Security Council members, including Pakistan, visited the 911 memorial in Lower Manhattan last week as the world marked 25 years since the attacks. Pakistan’s envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad was among those present.

Referring to the visit, Parvathaneni said, “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.”

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, who took fellow ambassadors to the memorial, said, “We reinforced our shared commitment to peace, security, and a world free from terror.”

UNSC Reaffirms Condemnation Of 9/11 Attacks

On the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the Security Council also adopted a Presidential Statement reaffirming its “unequivocal condemnation” of the 911 terrorist attacks.

Adopted under the French presidency, the statement was the Council’s first presidential statement on counter-terrorism in five years.

India used the anniversary and the Council’s discussions to underline what it described as the continued presence of terror sanctuaries and networks linked to groups facing UN sanctions.

India Raises Plight Of Afghan Returnees

Alongside its concerns over terrorism, India highlighted the worsening humanitarian challenges facing Afghans returning to the country. Parvathaneni cited the UN Secretary General’s report, according to which 2.9 million Afghans were returned in 2025, followed by another 1.15 million until August 22, 2026.

Most of these returns were involuntary, he said, while stressing that large-scale forced returns posed serious humanitarian concerns.

“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 said it was working with UN agencies and Afghan authorities to provide housing, food and other essential items to people returning to Afghanistan. It reiterated that any returns should be voluntary, safe and dignified.

India Condemns ‘Trade And Transit Terror’

India also strongly condemned what it described as the “trade and transit terror inflicted” on Afghanistan.

Parvathaneni said such actions violated UN declarations concerning Landlocked Developing Countries, WTO norms, the UN Charter, international law and basic human compassion.

India’s intervention at the Security Council therefore focused on two interconnected concerns: what it described as the continuing availability of sanctuary and support for terror groups, and the humanitarian consequences faced by millions of Afghans returning to the country.

The remarks came as the Security Council continued discussions on Afghanistan, with India pressing for international attention to both terrorism-related concerns and the wider humanitarian difficulties confronting the country.

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