At UN, Pakistan passes off Palestinian as victim of atrocities in Kashmir

New York: Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi in her right to reply to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's speech at the United Nations showed pictures of Palestinian victims and tried to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris.

Maleeha Lodhi resorted to waving dramatic pictures of a girl with pellet injuries on her face and added, "this was the face of Indian democracy", while suggesting that Kashmiris had been injured by pellet guns.

However, upon closer inspection of the picture, Maleeha Lodhi's claim seemed to have boomeranged on her.

Photo: Twitter/@PakistanUN_NY

The picture used by Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN was reported by a number of media outlets as that of Rawia Abu Joma'a, a 17-year-old girl injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza city in 2014. Rawia's picture was taken by award winning photographer Heidi Levine.

Earlier on Saturday, Swaraj had said India has risen despite being the principal destination of Pakistan's nefarious export of terrorism.

"India has risen despite being the principal destination of Pakistan's nefarious export of terrorism. There have been many governments under many parties during 70 years of Indian freedom, for we have been a sustained democracy. Every government has done its bit for India's development. We have marched ahead consistently without pause, in education, health and across the range of human welfare. We established scientific and technical institutions which are the pride of the world," Swaraj said while addressing the 72nd UNGA session in New York.

She also questioned as to what has Pakistan offered to the world and to its own people apart from terrorism.

In a stinging response to Pakistan at the UNGA, she said that India is completely engaged in fighting poverty, whereas Islamabad seems engaged in fighting New Delhi.