Pakistan dodges question on envoy Maleeha Lodhi's lie at General Assembly, blames India for pellets

Pakistan on Thursday dodged a question on top diplomat Maleeha Lodhi's lie at the UN General Assembly, saying the incident can't be used to deny an "indisputable fact" that Indian security forces were using pellet guns in Kashmir.

Lodhi, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, held up a photograph of an injured Gaza girl on the floor of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, and said she was a Kashmiri pellet gun victim. Paolomi Tripathi, the junior-most diplomat in India's mission to the United Nations, later responded to Lodhi by showing the UNGA a picture of Lt Umar Faiyaz, a young officer from Jammu and Kashmir who was killed by Pakistan-supported terrorists.

When asked about the incident, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria side-stepped the question. He blamed Indian security forces for blinding Kashmiris.

"India cannot deny around 80 Kashmiris completely blinded deliberately by its forces and blinding of over 200 innocent Kashmiris in one eye," he claimed.

"India cannot deny injuring thousands of Kashmiris using pellet guns... It is an indisputable fact," Zakaria claimed.

During the unrest that broke out in Kashmir after the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed by security forces last year, injuries and cases of partial or complete blindness caused by pellet gun use did attract strong criticism. But the woman in the picture Lodhi used was not one of the victims.

ZAKARIA ON INDIA'S ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN

Zakaria also accused India of playing the role of a spoiler in Afghanistan and of using the country's soil to carry out subversive activities inside Pakistan, under the garb of development assistance

"We have evidence to this effect, which was shared with the US, the Secretary General of the UN and also with the Afghan authorities," Zakaria said.

VIDEO: This was India's response to Maleeha Lodhi's lie.