India counters Pak’s fake narrative at UNGA, brings up Lt Ummer Fayaz’s killing

Paloumi Tripathi, first secretary to India’s UN mission, holds a photo of Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi, during her country’s right of reply in the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters, Monday, September 25, 2017. (Source: AP Photo)

India on Monday responded to Pakistan top envoy Maleeha Lodhi’s blunder of producing a picture of a girl from Gaza as the “face of Indian democracy” at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) saying that the latter is trying to divert international attention from the fact that Pakistan has become the hub of global terrorism, news agency ANI reported. Adopting a critical tone, as it reacted to accusations by Islamabad, India said that the envoy “callously” held up the picture of an injured girl from Palestine.

“Pakistan misled the assembly by displaying the picture to spread falsehoods about India. It was a fake picture to push a completely false narrative,” Paloumi Tripathi, first secretary to India’s UN mission, said.

Tripathi further produced a picture of martyred Lt Ummer Fayaz from Jammu and Kashmir who was killed by terrorists supported by Pakistan. “We are constrained to show a photo that reflects the real picture of pain inflicted by nefarious designs of Pakistan on India…. This is a real picture, of Lt Ummer Fayaz, a young officer from Jammu and Kashmir. He was brutally tortured and killed by Pakistan supported terrorists,” Tripathi said.

India also said that Pakistan is trying to deceive the international community by trying to divert their attention from the reality that it creates and supports terrorism. “This is the reality that permanent representative of Pakistan sought to obfuscate,” Tripathi said.

Facts Vs Alternative Facts @UN pic.twitter.com/odI3X1hYUu

— Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) September 25, 2017

Earlier on Sunday, while exercising her right to reply, Lodhi had flashed a picture of an injured Gaza woman whose face was peppered with alleged pellet gun wounds. “This is the face of Indian democracy,” Lodhi claimed, alleging that the woman shown in the picture was a victim of pellet guns in Kashmir. At UN, Pakistan goofs up with photograph of Gaza woman

However, the picture Lodhi displayed at the UN was of 17-year-old Rawya abu Joma’a of Gaza, who was injured when two Israeli air strikes pummelled her family’s apartment in Gaza in 2014. The picture, taken by award-winning American photo journalist Heidi Levine, is available on multiple news websites.

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in her speech at the UNGA, had launched a stinging attack on Islamabad for creating terrorist outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Haqqani Network.  “We (India) produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you produced? You have produced terrorists,” Swaraj said in her speech in Hindi. “Doctors save people from death; terrorists send them to death… We produced IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and space reserach centre, you produced Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Haqqani Network and Hizbul Mujahideen.”