Pakistan shot itself in the foot on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly by flaunting a fake image of a purported victim of “Indian brutality” in Kashmir.
The graphic picture of a blood-splattered face peppered with shrapnel injuries, it turned out, was that of a girl from Palestine, who was injured in an Israeli air strikes on Gaza city in 2014.
The image was brandished with gusto by no less a person than Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha lodhi, dubbing it “the face of Indian democracy.”
Soon enough, it became obvious that Pakistani diplomacy had egg on its face as the picture, available on several news websites, was quickly identified as that of 17-year-old Rawya abu Joma’a of Gaza. It was actually an award-winning photo taken by an American journalist in Gaza in July 2014.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper had, among others, used the picture on its website at that time, with the caption: “Rawya abu Joma’a, 17, at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Rawya was wounded when two Israeli air strikes hit her family’s apartment. Three of her cousins and her sister were killed in the strike.”
It was not immediately clear if it was a goof-up on the part of Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN or a deliberate attempt to mislead, as lodhi took the floor at the UN General Assembly to exercise her country’s “right of reply” after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s stinging attack on Pakistan in her address to the world body.
Swaraj had hit out at Pakistan for creating terror groups like leT, JeM, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Haqqani Network.
In her speech, Swaraj had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered the hand of peace and friendship after he assumed office.
“Pakistan’s Prime Minister must answer why his nation spurned this offer,” she had said.
Swaraj reminded Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that in December 2015, when she was in Islamabad, a decision was made by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that dialogue between India and Pakistan should be renewed and named it a “Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.”
“The word bilateral was used consciously to remove any confusion or doubt about the fact that the proposed talks would be between our two nations and only between our two nations, without any third party present. And he must answer why that proposal withered, because Pakistan is responsible for aborting that peace process,” Swaraj had said.
Clearly riled by Swaraj’s description of Pakistan as the world’s “pre-eminent terror factory,” lodhi sought to paint India as the “mother of terrorism in South Asia,” claiming that it “sponsored and perpetrated terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours.”
Pakistan accused India of adopting a posture of that of a “predator” and said if the international community wishes to avoid a dangerous escalation between the two neighbours, it must call on New Delhi to halt its provocations and aggressive actions. “It must end the ceasefire violations along the line of Control. It must halt its sponsorship of terrorist groups against Pakistan,” lodhi said.
lodhi alleged that “in her vitriol she (Swaraj) deliberately ignored the core issue” of Kashmir.
Given that such responses are normally given by a low- level foreign service official, it was quite significant that the top Pakistani diplomat took up the floor to launch a verbal duel against India. India did not immediately exercise its right to respond to lodhi’s remarks, in which Pakistan for the second time accused the National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval of interfering in Balochistan.
lodhi said if the parties fail to resolve a dispute, the UN and the international community has not only the right but the obligation to intervene.