From fake photo to attacking Narendra Modi: How Pakistan reacted to Sushma Swaraj's UNGA speech

On Saturday, Sushma Swaraj excoriated Pakistan for its support of terrorism. Pakistan responded to the UN General Assembly speech by sharing an incorrect photo to allege atrocities in Kashmir and by attacking the Narendra Modi government.

IndiaToday.in  | Edited by Dev Goswami
New Delhi, September 25, 2017 | UPDATED 09:49 IST

Highlights

  • 1
    Pakistan rep at UN shares incorrect photo to allege human rights violations in Kashmir.
  • 2
    'This so called democracy is the world's largest hypocrisy,' Pak's UN rep said
  • 3
    The UN rep was responding to Susham Swaraj hard-hitting speech from Saturday

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday tore in Pakistan for its support of terrorism. Speaking at the annual United Nations General Assembly session, Swaraj took Islamabad to task in an address that, perhaps, will be most remembered for her quote: 'India made IITs, IIMs, Pakistan made Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen'.

Responding to India's stinging denunciation, Pakistan took the unusual step of fielding a top-level diplomat to counter Swaraj. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's Representative to the UN, came out at the UN General Assembly to exercise Islamabad's right of reply.

Lodhi, however, was caught in an embarrassing gaffe when it turned out that a photo of girl she said was the 'face of Indian atrocities' turned out to be a victim of air strikes in Gaza.

Lodhi, who claimed that India and not Pakistan was the "mother of terrorism in South Asia, spectacularly brandished a photo of a girl with facial injuries, suggesting that the woman was injured by pellet gun fire in Jammu and Kashmir.

That, however, turned out to be a lie. The woman was not a Kashmiri. She was not a victim of pellet fire. She was 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom'a, a Palestinian woman who was injured in air strikes in Gaza, according to a report in the Guardian.

Lodhi, a former journalist, has not yet commented on the faux pax.

In her speech, Lodhi stuck to Pakistan's old record of raising Kashmir at international fora and criticised Swaraj for ignoring the 'core issue' of Jammu and Kashmir. She accused India of carrying out a "campaign of brutality... including shooting and blinding of innocent Kashmiri children with pellet guns."

Lodhi more or less echoed her Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who in his UNGA address from earlier this week, demanded an international investigation into alleged brutalities in Kashmir. "UN should take steps to investigate India's massive human rights violations in Kashmir, end the impunity enjoyed by India's security forces, lift the draconian laws and punish those responsible for genocide in Kashmir," Lodhi.

TAKES AIM AT MODI

Maleeha Lodhi, among the senior-most officers of Pakistan's diplomatic corps, also took aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

She invoked the Gujarat 2002 riots to attack the current Indian leadership. "Current political luminaries [in India] belong to an organisation that has the blood of thousands of Muslims of Gujarat on their hands," the Pakistani representative said.

"This so called democracy is the world's largest hypocrisy," Lodhi said, going on to allege that the Indian government is one "in which a racist and fascist ideology is embedded".

Lodhi did not explicitly name PM Modi or even the Bharatiya Janata Party. But it was clear whom she was referring to when she said that the Indian government appointed a "fanatic" as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

"[India's] leadership emanates from RSS, [which is the] same extremist group accused of assassinating mahatma Gandhi," Lodhi went on to say.

The current Indian government has "allowed" lynching of Muslims, Lodhi claimed as she invoked Booker-winning author Arundhati Roy to attack Swaraj's UN General Assembly speech.

Lodhi quoted from Roy's November 2015 statement: "These horrific murders are only a symptom. Life is hell for the living too. Whole populations of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and Christians are being forced to live in terror, unsure of when and from where the assault would come."

Meanwhile, in a related development, a Pakistani media report claimed that Islamabad has been lobbying in the United Nations to get India declared a 'state sponsor of terrorism', a tag that carries with it threats of international sanctions.

The Express Tribune reported that Pakistan is approaching China, Russia and the United States, three of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, over the matter that Islamabad would bring in a resolution in the UNSC soon.

WATCH | Pakistan's UN envoy tries to pass off Palestinian as pellet gun victim from Kashmir