Indian national at centre of Pak's misinformation network

Portals and groups such as Hindutva Watch and India Hate Lab are the brainchild of Pak deep state.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Foreign-based “research groups” that are the brainchild and are being funded by various arms of the Pakistani deep state, are recruiting Indian nationals, working in Western countries, to run these groups and portals that have been specifically created to spread misinformation about India at the international level.

The reason behind having Indian faces in these groups and portals is to add legitimacy to their claims about the rising “hate” in India.

According to intelligence agencies tracking these groups and portals, the “research work” done by these groups and portals is then given a larger audience and more legitimacy by members of the Washington-based mainstream media.

Inputs and assessment seen by The Sunday Guardian related to some of these portals and groups such as “Hindutva Watch” and “India Hate Lab” clearly show that they are the brainchild of and were brought into existence by well-estab lished names of Pakistan’s deep state, including the India-focused Jamaate-Islami. According to a probe done by intelligence units, Hindutva Watch first came on their radar in 2019 when a Twitter account was launched in that name followed by a website. For four years, it continued to be active, working anonymously, working without revealing who was actually handling it.

However, in January 2023, in an interview to a Western media outlet, Raqib Hameed Naik, an Indian national from Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir, claimed that he was the man who was running the site. This claim is false, as inputs seen by The Sunday Guardian reveal.