Pakistan Notifies UNSC, Asserts Right to Respond to Operation Sindoor

After India's missile strike on terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Islamabad has threatened the UN Security Council in stern language, declaring its plans to retaliate at a time and place of its choice.

India's retaliatory attack, Operation Sindoor, was initiated on Wednesday as a befitting reply to the lethal terrorist strike in Pahalgam last month, which left 26 civilians dead. The Resistance Front (TRF), the proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Pakistan's UN mission said it had informed the Council that it "reserves the right to respond appropriately to this aggression at a time and place of its choosing," under UN Charter rights.

The statement, in which India's actions were described as "blatant aggression," asserted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Security Council President Evangelos Sekeris, and General Assembly President Philomen Yang had been all briefed on the happenings. There was no reference, however, to a request being made formally for a Council meeting in response.

The Security Council had earlier last Friday met in secret at Pakistan's request to discuss escalating tensions between the two nuclear nations. The post-meeting Assistant Secretary-General described the situation as "volatile."

India's Defence Ministry confirmed that it conducted precision missile strikes on nine terror-related sites under Operation Sindoor targeting militant facilities used by militants based on the other side of the border.

In reaction to the events, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, requested that the two countries exercise "maximum military restraint," going on further to say that "the world cannot afford military confrontation between India and Pakistan."

Guterres reiterated his unreserved condemnation of the Pahalgam attack too. "Targeting civilians is unacceptable – and those responsible must be brought to justice through transparent, credible, and lawful means," he said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army reported cross-border firing by Pakistan on Wednesday. Pakistan, for its part, claimed to have shot down five Indian aircraft—an assertion India countered, saying the retaliatory operation was by way of missile fire only and not by way of air sorties.