Pak diplomat brandishes lie at UN ~ shows fake photo - responding to articulation of Ms Sushma Swaraj

Pakistan received criticism from all quarters on Sunday after the country's envoy to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi’s riposte to the speech of Sushma Swaraj.  

The Gaza Strip or simply Gaza, is a small self-governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering  Egypt and Israel. Gaza, together with the West Bank, constitute the Palestinian territories claimed by the Palestinians as the State of Palestine.  The territory is 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and from 6 to 12 kilometers (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 sq mi).. this place gets extensive coverage by the Western media.

India's suave  foreign minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj,  on 23^rd Sept 2017  had told the UN that Islamabad had given the world "terrorists" while India was producing top-notch doctors and engineers.  "Why is it today India is a recognised IT superpower in the world, and Pakistan is recognised only as the pre-eminent export factory for terror?" Sushma Swaraj told the General Assembly. "We produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you produced? You have produced terrorists."    "We set up IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and ISRO. What did Pakistan make? They set up Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Haqqani Network, Hizbul Mujahiddeen," said Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who addressed the gathering of leaders from 193 countries for the second consecutive year.  Naming the Pakistan PM twice in her 21-minute speech, Ms Swaraj told the UN meet where reproaches of other leaders are generally less personal, that a country that has been the world's greatest exporter of havoc, death and inhumanity had become a champion of hypocrisy by preaching about humanity from this podium. The jibe was aimed at Pakistan Prime Minister, who had devoted much of his first address to accusing India of, what he called, was terror against Islamabad and "war crimes" in Kashmir.

Maleeha Lodhi, is a Pakistani diplomat, military strategist, academician and political scientist who serves as Pakistan's Representative to the United Nations, the first woman to hold the position. Previously, she served as Pakistan's envoy to the Court of St James's and twice as its ambassador to the United States.   According to the Daily Times Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after extensive consultations with his close aide Sartaj Aziz, decided to appoint Lodhi in the UN. She succeeded Masood Khan in February 2015. Lodhi  in her  debut address at the United Nations called for 'addressing the underlying factors responsible for terrorism so as to formulate an effective and comprehensive response' and said  - : It took my country 67 years to send a woman to the United Nations, it takes a while, but eventually we get there.

Now in her speech at UN, responding to Ms Sushma,  has put Pakistan on the turmoil.  In her response to the allegations of terrorism levelled against Pakistan by India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her address at the UN General Assembly session in New York, Lodhi said India is using terrorism as a state policy. Exercising the right of reply to an earlier speech, Lodhi accused Swaraj of “indulging in an orgy of slander against Pakistan.”

 “Her comments towards my country betray the hostility that the Indian leadership has towards Pakistan —the hostility we have endured for 70 years,” Ambassador Lodhi told the 72^nd  UNGA ~  and in her attempt to malign   India for alleged atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir  dropped to the extent of showing  a fake image of a "pellet gun victim" !!  She tried telling UN that  India had deliberately skirted the "core issue" of Kashmir in the UNGA yesterday. In the midst of her 'right to reply', Lodhi brandished a photo of a woman whose face was peppered with wounds and said, "This is the face of Indian democracy."

Alas, the evil designs were exposed too soon – it emerged   that the so-called "pellet gun victim" was a 17-year-old Gazan woman named Rawya abu Jom, who had been injured by shrapnel during an airstrike by Israeli forces. The picture was taken by photojournalist Heidi Levine in July 2014 when she was covering the Gaza war.  She had no connection with Kashmir and media has revealed her like by showing screenshot of photojournalist Heidi Levine's website shows the image of 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom,  injured during the Gaza War.

This barefaced lie notwithstanding, Lodhi went on to call India the "mother of terrorism" in South Asia and accused it of sponsoring terrorism in various parts  ! what do you call this lie !!

Goof-ups are not new !!    In Feb 2011  ~ the venue was United Nations Security Council and it was the  debate on security and development.  India's then external affairs minister SM Krishna read out the wrong speech for about three minutes before being corrected by India's envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri.  Reports stated that Krishna read Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado's speech, without realising his mistake, apparently because the first portion related to general issues pertaining to the UN, development and security. The Portuguese minister had already spoken before India. 

But this lie of Pakistan is of a different dimension altogether… .. what else do you expect from a Terror State.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

25^th Sept. 2017