Pakistani diplomat passes off injured Gaza girl's photo as Kashmiri
What's the story
On Saturday, Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, embarrassingly tried to pass off a photo of a girl from Gaza as that of one from Kashmir. Lodhi was responding to Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's scathing criticism of Pakistan, whom she had called a "pre-eminent export factory for terror." Lodhi was trying to highlight India's alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.
What happened?
Photo used to highlight India's "campaign of brutality inside Kashmir"
While exercising the right to reply at the UN General Assembly, Lodhi had accused India of committing "crimes against humanity" and conducting a "campaign of brutality inside Kashmir." Lodhi then showed the photo of a badly injured girl, claiming she's a Kashmiri struck by pellets fired by Indian security forces. The photo was also tweeted by the Pakistani UN mission's official Twitter handle.
Twitter Post
Pak mission to UN tweets photo of Gaza girl
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
Details
Photo was of girl injured in Israeli airstrike in 2014
It turns out the Pakistani mission didn't do its homework. The photo in question was that of 17-year-old Rawia Abu Joma'a who was injured in 2014 during Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The photo was taken by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine. The photo had subsequently been featured by the New York Times and the Guardian, among other publications.