Day after Pakistan goof-up at UN, Indian envoy displays ‘true picture’: photo of Armyman killed in J-K

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. (Source: AP photo)

A day after Pakistan’s top envoy at the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi waved a photograph of a purported “pellet gun victim” from Kashmir which turned out to be a photograph of an injured girl from Palestine, India fielded a junior diplomat at the UN who showed a picture of Lt Umar Faiyaz, a young Army officer from J&K and was brutally killed by “Pakistan-supported terrorists” in May this year. She called it a “true picture” which portrays a “harsh and tragic reality” of India.

Calling Lodhi waving a picture of the Palestinian girl “a fake picture to push a completely false narrative”, Paulomi Tripathi — a 2007-batch diplomat — said that the Permanent Representative of Pakistan, in her statement, yet again sought to divert attention from Pakistan’s role as the hub of global terrorism.

“She did so by callously holding up a picture of an injured girl. It was a photograph of Rawya abu Jom’a, a girl from Palestine. The picture was taken on 22 July 2014 by an American photographer Heidi Levine. This photograph was published by New York Times on 24 March 2015 under the caption ‘Conflict, Courage and Healing in Gaza’. The Permanent Representative of Pakistan misled this Assembly by displaying this picture to spread falsehoods about India. A fake picture to push a completely false narrative,” she said.

Tripathi, a First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India at the UN, said that “in view of this cynical and misleading attempt by Pakistan, we are constrained to show this Assembly, a photograph that reflects the real picture of pain inflicted by the nefarious designs of Pakistan on India”.

“This is a real and not a fake picture of Lt. Umar Faiyaz. A young officer from the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. Umar Faiyaz was kidnapped at a wedding celebration. He was brutally tortured and killed by Pakistan supported terrorists in May 2017,” she said.

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

— Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) September 25, 2017

“This is a true picture. It portrays a harsh and tragic reality. A picture of terrorism emanating from across our borders that the people of India, especially in the state of Jammu and Kashmir have to struggle with, every day. This is the reality which the Permanent Representative of Pakistan sought to obfuscate,” Tripathi said. She concluded by saying that the “true face of Pakistan is not hidden from anyone”.

Lt Faiyaz had gone to attend the wedding ceremony when he was abducted by militants from his relative’s house in south Kashmir’s Shopian. His bullet-riddled body was found later.