India on Monday fielded a junior diplomat at its permanent mission at the United Nations to rebut Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Maleeha Lodhi’s allegations, raised on Saturday evening. Ms. Lodhi had accused India of terrorism and human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and held out a picture in support of her arguments that turned out to be from Gaza.
“The Permanent Representative (PR) of Pakistan misled this Assembly by displaying this picture to spread falsehoods about India. A fake picture to push a completely false narrative,” Indian diplomat Paulomi Tripathi told the UNGA, in response.
Ms. Tripathi said the Pakistan PR “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.”
The photograph was of Rawya Abu Jom’a, a girl from Palestine. “The picture was taken on July 22, 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 Indian official said.
Ms. Tripathi then went on to show a photograph that she said “reflects the real picture of pain inflicted by the nefarious designs of Pakistan on India” — of Lt. Umar Faiyaz, an Indian soldier, who was kidnapped and murdered in Kashmir.