India on Wednesday called on the international community to dismantle the permissive environments that allow transnational terrorist networks to operate, find shelter and evade accountability.
Referring to the global fight against terrorism launched after the 9/11 attacks, New Delhi stressed that al-Qaeda’s network has extended beyond Afghanistan through its affiliates.
Speaking at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, said the international community had backed the campaign against terrorism following the September 11 attacks.
“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 eco-system established its strategic depth beyond Afghanistan through its affiliates,” Harish said, according to ANI.
He pointed out that several key figures behind the 9/11 attacks were not hiding in remote caves or ungoverned areas when they were eventually tracked down.
Osama bin Laden, who ordered and financed the attacks, was located in a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed during Operation Neptune Spear.
“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the operation, was found sheltering in an ordinary residential house,” Harish said. He added that Ramzi Binalshibh, who helped coordinate the hijacker cell after being denied a visa to join the group, was found in an urban centre.
“These were not fugitives hiding in caves or badlands,” the ambassador said, stressing that the terrorists had managed to operate from populated and established environments.
“Draining this swamp that provided an enabling environment for such monsters of humankind to prosper is important,” he added.
Harish said similar conditions have continued to provide terrorist organisations with space, support and protection.
“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,” he said.
He further said some terrorist groups have adopted different identities to circumvent the UN Security Council’s sanctions framework, while their leadership and terror-training infrastructure have remained shielded from consequences.
India Flags Afghan Returnee Crisis
India also raised concerns over the involuntary repatriation of Afghan nationals from neighbouring countries, warning of the humanitarian consequences of large-scale returns.
The number of Afghans returning or being deported from countries such as Pakistan and Iran has increased sharply. Taliban and UN figures cited by ANI indicate that more than 617,000 Afghan migrants returned or were forcibly deported during the first half of 2026.
Harish said the humanitarian situation remained a serious concern, citing the UN Secretary-General’s report that 2.9 million Afghans returned in 2025, while another 1.15 million had returned by August 22, 2026. Most of these returns, he said, were involuntary.
“We also reiterate our deep concern at the humanitarian plight of the Afghan returnees,” Harish said.
He criticised what he described as the limited international response to the mass returns.
“A forcible return of this nature that is neither safe nor dignified, of over 3 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,” he said.
“That there is no such reaction is a sad reflection on the times,” Harish added.
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