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Updated: Jul 05, 2020 06:05 IST

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was taken to cleaners on Saturday by intrepid Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Vidisha Maitra, who nailed him on every single point from his speech while reminding him that his country was the fountainhead of terrorism.

Maitra, first secretary in the foreign ministry, became an instant social media star drawing praise for her stinging attack on Pakistan PM while exercising India’s right of reply to Khan’s speech at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday.

‘Brinkmanship’: India’s stinging response to Imran Khan’s UNGA address

“More power to Vidisha Maitra, nailing every single lie spoken by Pakistan PM yesterday and for exposing what Pakistan’s ruling establishment truly stands for- violence, extremism and terrorism,” tweeted Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Maitra, who is from the batch of 2009 IFS officers, had cleared civil services exam in 2008 and stood at the 39th rank. She cleared her training routiune in 2009 for which she won the ‘best training officer’ gold medal. She currently is India’s first secretary and the newest officers at the United Nations. She is in charge of security council 9neighbourhood/region) and also looks after the Shanghai cooperation organisatioin.

On Saturday she tore into Imran Khan’s speech with a point by point rebuttal to his claims and allegations.

Fountainhead of terror

The feisty first secretary’s sharpest attack was over Pakistan’s endorsement of terror. Hurling questions at Khan, Maitra asked: “Can Pakistan PM confirm that it is home to 130 UN designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the UN? Will Pakistan deny that Financial Action Task Force has put the country on notice for its violations of more than 20 of the 27 key parameters? And would PM Imran Khan deny to the city of New York that he was an open defender of Osama bin Laden?”

Imran Khan Niazi

Vidisha Maitra, in her reply, referred to Imran Khan as Imran Khan Niazi. Twitter users saw this reference to his clan, the same of General Niazi who had surrendered to India in 1971 war, as a masterstyroke. Imran Khan belongs to the Niazi clan of Mianwali. In 1971, General AAK Niazi, the then lieutenant-general in the Pakistan Army, surrendered his forces to India

Trashing Imran’s use of words

Every word from Imran khan, Maitra fiercely said, was a callous portrayal of the world in binary terms: “Us versus Them, Rich versus Poor. North vs South, Developed vs Developing, Muslims vs Others. Words like pogrom, bloodbath, racial superiority, ‘pick up the gun’ and ‘fight to the end’ reflect a medieval mentality”.

Darra Adam Khel and cricketer dig

“For someone who was once a cricketer and believed in the gentleman’s game, today’s speech bordered on crudeness of the variety that is reminiscent of the guns of Darra Adam Khel,” she added. Darra Adam Khel, a town in Frontier Region Kohat located in between Kohat and Peshawar, within the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. It has gained notoriety for its bazaars packed with gunsmiths, weapons merchants and arms factories.

Hitting with numbers

In her attack on Pakistan’s disappointing record vis a vis minorities, Maitra hit out: “This a country that has shrunk the size of its minority community from 23% in 1947 to 3% today and has subjected Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyas, Hindus, Shias, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Balochis to draconian blasphemy laws, systemic persecution, blatant abuse and forced conversions”.