Pakistan's shameful lie at UN: Ambassador Lodhi tries to pass off Palestinian as pellet gun victim from Kashmir
The woman whose picture Pakistan's Representative to the United Nations showed the General Assembly earlier today was NOT of a victim of pellet gun fire in Kashmir. Read on to find out more about Pakistan's lie.
In Short
- At the UNGA, Lodhi said a photo of a wounded woman was the face of India.
- But that photo wasn't taken in India. It was a picture of a Palestinian woman.
- Lodhi tried to pass her off as a pellet gun victim in Kashmir.
When Home Minister Rajnath Singh said his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj had exposed Pakistan's "duplicity" on terrorism in her speech at the UN General Assembly, he had no way of knowing Islamabad would provide a textbook example of deceitfulness in less than 24 hours - in truly spectacular fashion.
Earlier today, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's Representative to the UN, dramatically raised aloft a picture of a woman at the General Assembly. Her face, riddled with wounds, was the face of India, Lodhi said.
It was a resounding lie.
The woman was not a Kashmiri. She was not a victim of pellet fire. She was 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom'a, a Palestinian woman who was injured in air strikes in Gaza, according to a report in the Guardian.
That happened In 2014 - two years before unrest broke out in Kashmir after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter by security forces.
At that time, injuries and cases of partial or complete blindness caused by pellet gun use did attract strong criticism (and the Home Ministry even asked security forces to use plastic bullets instead), but the woman in the picture Lodhi used was not one of the victims.
Take a look at this screenshot of the Guardian report. The photograph was taken by Heidi Levine.
And here's a tweet which shows Lodhi holding up the picture.
In her reply to Indian FM's speech in UNGA, Amb. Lodhi showed a pic of pellet gun injured women frm Kashmir saying this is the face of India pic.twitter.com/StuG3arPoN- Pakistan Mission UN (@PakistanUN_NY) September 24, 2017
What's incredible is that Maheela Lodhi is a former journalist, and should know the basics of fact-checking. The website of Pakistan's Mission to the UN says she was "the founding editor of Pakistans leading English daily, The News," and "the first woman in all of Asia to become the editor of a national daily newspaper. "
At least two Pakistani websites participated in this failure of journalistic ethics.
Pakistan Defence, a website which claims to be that nation's "largest digital forum" and purports to disseminate news, retweeted the Pakistani UN Mission's message without bothering to do a fact-check. See for yourself.
Geo News, a TV channel, also failed to verify the information.
Maleeha Lodhi said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had spread a "litany of falsehoods" in her blistering take-down of Islamabad on Saturday.
In her reply, Lodhi said the Narendra Modi government had a "racist and facsist" ideology, and called Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath a "fanatic."
To top it all, Pakistan now wants the UN to declare India a 'state sponsor of terrorism.'
VIDEO: Here's what EAM Swaraj told the UN General Assembly about Pakistan and terrorism. Read the full text here.