Congress castigates Maleeha Lodhi, hails Swaraj

New Delhi [India], September 24 (ANI): The Congress Party on Sunday said that Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi used the picture of Palestine girl for mischievous purpose.

"I can only be amused at Maleeha Lodhi and their inability. They were using the picture of Palestine girl for mischievous purpose," Congress leader Salman Khurshid told ANI.

He further said that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has put India's position at international level on terrorism.

"I am very glad that Foreign Minister has minced no words and strongly put India's position at international level on terrorism. We already have suffered as far as terrorism is concerned. The world did turning around because terrorist are hurting them," he added.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhanshu Trivedi said that the US visited India for talent hunt and US visited Pakistan for terrorist hunt.

"The reply and representation of Pakistan's representative are false and ridiculous, exactly in tune with image of Pakistan. Not only are they putting false fact, which are now known to the world. But the truth fact is Osama bin laden the biggest terrorist of his time was found in Pakistan. Multinational companies from all over the world including US visited India for talent hunt and US visited Pakistan for terrorist hunt. Reaction of Maleeha Lodhi was baseless," BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi said.

Earlier in the day, Maleeha Lodhi in her right to reply to Sushma Swaraj's speech at the UN showed pictures of Palestinian victims and tried to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris.

Maleeha Lodhi resorted to waving dramatic pictures of a girl with pellet injuries on her face and added, "this was the face of Indian democracy", while suggesting that Kashmiris had been injured by pellet guns.

However, upon closer inspection of the picture, Maleeha Lodhi's claim seemed to have boomeranged on her.

The picture used by Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN was reported by a number of media outlets as that of Rawia Abu Joma'a, a 17-year-old girl injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza city in 2014. Rawia's picture was taken by award winning photographer Heidi Levine.

Earlier on Saturday, Swaraj had said India has risen despite being the principal destination of Pakistan's nefarious export of terrorism.

"India has risen despite being the principal destination of Pakistan's nefarious export of terrorism. There have been many governments under many parties during 70 years of Indian freedom, for we have been a sustained democracy. Every government has done its bit for India's development. We have marched ahead consistently without pause, in education, health and across the range of human welfare. We established scientific and technical institutions which are the pride of the world," Swaraj said while addressing the 72nd UNGA session in New York.

She also questioned as to what has Pakistan offered to the world and to its own people apart from terrorism.

In a stinging response to Pakistan at the UNGA, she said that India is completely engaged in fighting poverty, whereas Islamabad seems engaged in fighting New Delhi. (ANI)