Report in The Times of India, Sept 25, 2017
NEW DELHI: In its zeal to rebuff India’s scathing indictment of Islamabad’s terror policy, Pakistan only managed to embarrass itself at the UN as it displayed a wrong picture of a purported Kashmiri pellet gun victim.
The photograph flashed by Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, turned out to be that of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, Rawya Abu Joma, who was injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in 2014. Pakistan was attempting to get back at foreign minister Sushma Swaraj for slamming the neighbour for producing jihadis while India turned out “doctors and engineers”.
The photo was actually taken at Shifa hospital in Gaza by Jerusalem-based American freelance photojournalist Heidi Levine.
“This is the face of Indian democracy,” Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi said as she brandished a photograph while exercising Pakistan’s right to reply in response to Swaraj’s speech. The photo turned out to be that of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, Rawya Abu Joma.
Screenshot of photojournalist Heidi Levine’s website shows the image of 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom, who was injured during the Gaza War.
Rawya was injured in an airstrike on her apartment in which her sister and three cousins were killed. So far, India has never used heavy military against its citizens in Jammu and Kashmir or elsewhere.
Lodhi had dramatically waved the photo in a misfired attempt to expose what Pakistan routinely describes as atrocities committed by Indian forces in J&K. In her response to Swaraj, Lodhi had described India as the “mother of terrorism” in South Asia. This was a big loss of face for Pakistan also because the right to reply in such cases is usually exercised by junior diplomats and Lodhi was fielded only to ensure that Pakistan’s message was heard loud and clear.
In her speech, Lodhi had invoked comments by celebrity Indian author Arundhati Roy to counter Swaraj’s assertion that Pakistan was the greatest exporter of terrorism.
“Much of what is in the air in India now is pure terror, in Kashmir, in other places,” Lodhi said, quoting Roy in her speech.
She also quoted the novelist —who is an activist for civil liberty causes —that “whole populations of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and Christians are being forced to live in terror”.
Lodhi further said, “A racist and fascist ideology is firmly embedded in Modi’s government and its leadership is drawn from the RSS which is accused of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.”
She slammed the decision to appoint Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of UP, saying “the government has appointed a fanatic as the chief minister of India’s largest state”. “It is a government which has allowed the lynching of Muslims,” she said.
Lodhi took particular objection to Swaraj’s observation about Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah who, Pakistani PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said, bequeathed a foreign policy based on peace and friendship. Swaraj had said it “remains open to question whether Jinnah Sahab actually advocated such principles”.
Lodhi said Pakistan remained open to resuming a comprehensive dialogue with India but it should include Kashmir and end what she claimed was a “campaign of subversion and state-sponsored terrorism”.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pak-left-red-faced-at-un-as-envoy-goofs-up-on-picture/articleshow/60820650.cms
Comments are closed.