Pakistan has made fool out of itself: former diplomats rebuke Maleeha Lodhi

New Delhi [India], September 25 (ANI): Pakistan has made a fool out of itself and one should laugh at it, said former diplomat Nagendra Nath Jha, while discussing about Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi's showing pictures of Palestinian victims and trying to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris.

"Pakistan has made a fool of itself and to all the rubbish they have said against Prime Minister Modi and India, I hope our representatives at the UN give a good answer to them in due course," Jha told ANI.

He also mentioned that Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi's was very "keen" to make a statement against Minister of External Affairs Susham Swaraj, who had given a convincing and successful speech at the UN, adding, "So, whatever information Lodhi could get her hands on she tried to put it as Indian atrocity."

Jha also said that nobody believes Pakistan, coming from the fact that they hid Osama Bin Laden and kept denying about it.

"Pakistan tries to keep fooling the world and gets caught every time," Jha said.

Speaking on the same note, former diplomat Ashok Sajjanhar said, "This is a travesty of facts and I think the whole world recognises that India, who has been a victim of terrorism, has zero tolerance towards it."

He added that it is Pakistan, who organise terrorist attacks, not only against India, but also against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"Back in SAARC, other countries rose with us on the issue of terrorism. In heart of Asia conference last year, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani made it very clear that it is Pakistan that is fermenting terrorism," Sajjanhar further said.

This comes after Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi on Sunday in her right to reply to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's speech at the UN, showed pictures of the Palestinian victims and tried to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris.

Maleeha Lodhi in her speech at the UN, 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.

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister Sushma 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," she said.

"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 added, while addressing the 72nd UNGA session in New York.

The External Affairs Minister 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, Swaraj said that India is completely engaged in fighting poverty, whereas Islamabad seems engaged in fighting New Delhi. (ANI)