How is India Fighting Disinformation Campaign Machinery of Pakistan

Following India's military strikes, members of the Pakistani government and its supporters launched what officials in Delhi described as a coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at controlling the narrative and shifting focus from the operation's outcomes.

- Sejal Sharma

NEW DELHI:

The operation triggered an online propaganda response, with pro-Pakistan social media accounts and political figures circulating stories of military victories and retaliation that independent and government verification quickly debunked.

"Pro-Pakistan social media handles and even influential political figures are deliberately spreading fake news, fabricating stories of miraculous military victories and heroic retaliation that simply do not exist," said an advisory released by PIB.

Among the most prominent examples was Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif stating that Indian soldiers were captured during the strikes, a claim he later retracted, acknowledging that no Indian soldiers had been taken into custody.

Another example was a viral image claiming that the Pakistan Army shot down an Indian Rafale jet near Bahawalpur. Independent fact-checkers determined the image actually showed a MiG-21 crash in Moga, Punjab, from 2021—unrelated to current events.

The Indian government's Press Information Bureau's (PIB) fact-check unit (FCU) too issued a rebuttal.