Meet Paulomi Tripathi, the young diplomat who ripped off Islamabad's veil
, TNN|
Sep 26, 2017, 12.33 PM IST
After Pakistan described India as the "mother of terrorism in south Asia", India came up with a stunning rebuttal on Monday, with a young Indian diplomat accusing Islamabad of using fakes to embellish its false narrative on Kashmir, and waving the photo of a slain Kashmiri Indian Army officer to drive home New Delhi's point on cross-border terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan.
Paulomi Tripathi, a first secretary with India's permanent mission to the United Nations, held up two photographs together -one showing the Army officer, and the other of Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi brandishing the picture of a Palestinian woman she described as a Kashmiri woman bearing pellet gun injuries -and declared, "The true face of Pakistan is not hidden from anyone."
The Army officer shown in the picture was Lieutenant Umar Faiyaz, who was abducted from a wedding and killed by terrorists in J&K's Shopian this May .
A 2007-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Tripathi, who took on Pakistan's most experienced diplomat at the UN, is the most junior diplomat at India's permanent mission to the UN in New York, which is headed by Syed Akbaruddin. The geography graduate, who was pursuing a PhD at JNU, joined the mission two months ago. Her children and husband are still in Delhi.
The choice of Tripathi was deliberate to show India as a storehouse of young talent, a point foreign minister Sushma Swaraj too had sought to make as she ripped Pakistan apart over crossborder terrorism in her UN General Assembly address.
Tripathi handles human rights at the Indian permanent mission. In view of Lodhi's cynical attempt to mislead the UN, a confident Tripathi said India had been constrained to show the assembly a photograph (of Faiyaz) that reflected 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," said Tripathi.
"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 & Kashmir, have to struggle with every day . This is the reality which the permanent representative of Pakistan sought to obfuscate," she added.
Tripathi accused Lodhi of yet again seeking 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," said Tripathi.
While exercising Pakistan's right of reply , Lodhi had sought to counter Swaraj's strong indictment of Pakistan's conduct on terrorism by displaying a picture of a woman she thought was a Kashmiri pellet gun victim. As Tripathi said in her speech, it was actually a photograph of Rawya abu Jom'a of Palestine.
The picture was taken on July 22, 2014, by American photographer Heidi Levine.This photograph was published by `New York Times' on March 24, 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," said Tripathi.
Paulomi Tripathi, a first secretary with India's permanent mission to the United Nations, held up two photographs together -one showing the Army officer, and the other of Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi brandishing the picture of a Palestinian woman she described as a Kashmiri woman bearing pellet gun injuries -and declared, "The true face of Pakistan is not hidden from anyone."
The Army officer shown in the picture was Lieutenant Umar Faiyaz, who was abducted from a wedding and killed by terrorists in J&K's Shopian this May .
A 2007-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Tripathi, who took on Pakistan's most experienced diplomat at the UN, is the most junior diplomat at India's permanent mission to the UN in New York, which is headed by Syed Akbaruddin. The geography graduate, who was pursuing a PhD at JNU, joined the mission two months ago. Her children and husband are still in Delhi.
The choice of Tripathi was deliberate to show India as a storehouse of young talent, a point foreign minister Sushma Swaraj too had sought to make as she ripped Pakistan apart over crossborder terrorism in her UN General Assembly address.
Tripathi handles human rights at the Indian permanent mission. In view of Lodhi's cynical attempt to mislead the UN, a confident Tripathi said India had been constrained to show the assembly a photograph (of Faiyaz) that reflected 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," said Tripathi.
"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 & Kashmir, have to struggle with every day . This is the reality which the permanent representative of Pakistan sought to obfuscate," she added.
Tripathi accused Lodhi of yet again seeking 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," said Tripathi.
While exercising Pakistan's right of reply , Lodhi had sought to counter Swaraj's strong indictment of Pakistan's conduct on terrorism by displaying a picture of a woman she thought was a Kashmiri pellet gun victim. As Tripathi said in her speech, it was actually a photograph of Rawya abu Jom'a of Palestine.
The picture was taken on July 22, 2014, by American photographer Heidi Levine.This photograph was published by `New York Times' on March 24, 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," said Tripathi.
(This article was originally published in The Times of India)
