Pakistan’s disinformation campaign The Excelsior 08 May 2025
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Pakistan’s disinformation campaign The Excelsior 08 May 2025
Who can ever forget Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodi in 2017, responding to India’s criticism of Pak PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s address to the General Assembly, naming India as ‘the mother of terrorism in South Asia,’ while displaying a photograph of a girl, scarred by pellets, claiming her to be from Kashmir. Maleeha’s lie was exposed. The photograph was of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, taken in Gaza in 2014 by award-winning photographer, Heidi Levine.
Maleeha Lodhi earned the nickname of ‘gaffe queen.’ Pakistan had attempted to lower India’s global image but the exercise backfired, embarrassing Islamabad. Maleeha Lodhi was subsequently replaced. On multiple occasions, Pakistan has been called out for lying or pushing fake narratives as part of its disinformation campaign.
Pakistan’s disinformation campaign against India has multiple aims. The first is to play on India’s social fabric, leading to religious violence, enhancing internal instability. Pakistan leaders commented on the Citizenship Amendment Act claiming it to be discriminatory against Muslims leading to protests, few turning violent, fuelled by its sleeper cells. It recently stated that the Wakf amendment bill will dispossess a number of Mosques, resulting in limited violence.
Pakistan has employed every card to instigate the Sikh community into taking up arms for Khalistan. Its fake reports of successful Khalistan referendums in different parts of the globe, as also partnering with Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) is an attempt to gain trust of the community. Post Pahalgam, Pakistan shut its borders with India, only leaving the Kartarpur corridor open, conveying the message that it considers Sikhs as an independent nation. It met with failure.
The second aim is to undermine India’s global standing. The third is projecting Kashmir as disputed with locals resisting the Indian government, preferring to join militant ranks. Both of these are closely linked. In Aug 2023, Pak media outlets and proxy organizations released a report highlighting the existence of mass graves in Kashmir. They even circulated horrifying images, claiming them to be of Kashmiri civilians killed by Indian security forces.
In reality these images were of the Bosnian war and specifically the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre. Once their fake disinformation attempt was called out, these were hurriedly withdrawn. This occurred just a couple of months after India successfully conducted a G 20 event in Srinagar, which was a success and proved Pakistan’s claims on Kashmir to be fake.
The number of days in a year marked for Kashmir by the Pak government will indicate how desperate they are to keep the issue alive at the global level, while reminding its people that their army exists solely to regain Kashmir. A few include marking 05 Feb each year as Kashmir solidarity day, 08 Jul, the day Burhan Wani was eliminated, as Resistance Day and 13th July as Martyr’s Day. It has even named a chowk in Muzaffarabad as Burhan Wani chowk.
Pakistan marks 1st Sept, the day Syed Ali Geelani died, as Baba-i-Hurriyat (Father of Freedom) Day and 05 Aug, the day article 370 was abrogated, as Youm-e-Istehsal, which when translated means ‘Day of Exploitation.’ 27th Oct, the day of accession of J and K to India is ‘Black Day’ in Pakistan.
While Pakistan organizes marches and speeches on these days, occasionally declaring a national holiday, life in Kashmir is normal, with not a single protest, bandh or market closed. For Kashmiris, these days mean nothing. However, Pakistan’s disinformation campaign mentions Kashmir shutting down with anti-India protests and violence. Islamabad terms terrorists killed in Kashmir as innocents.
The fourth intent is to damage the morale of Indian forces and security agencies. Post the Pulwama attack, Pakistan’s disinformation networks went into overdrive claiming it was an internal action and in retaliation, India killed innocent Kashmiris. It released fake videos to build anger against Indian security forces. Factchecks subsequently confirmed these videos were extracted from footages of Iraq, Syria or Palestine.
To hide the success of the Balakote strike, Pakistani handles pushed the narrative that the Indian air force had destroyed a Madrassa and killed a few civilians, hoping to incite inter-community violence. This disinformation was exposed by multiple news networks employing satellite images including Reuters and New York Times.
Recently Pakistan handles uploaded a video of a supposed Indian soldier named Ashok Kumar, who while wearing Indian army fatigues mentioned that the Pahalgam incident was an ‘inside job.’ Once Pakistan’s disinformation claims were called out as fake, its handles deleted the picture.
Pakistan also falsely mentioned that India’s Northern Army Commander, Lt Gen MV Suchendra Kumar, was removed from his post for failure to prevent the Pahalgam attack. The reality was that the officer retired on 30th Apr. It attempted similar claims against other senior military officers, all fake.
In 2011, Pakistan’s navy proudly released pictures of Indian war ships on exercise, on their official media handle, claiming them to be of their navy. The embarrassment was immense when their lies were caught.
Recently, in the midst of the post-Pahalgam crisis, Pakistan’s air force published a three-minute video on its official DGISPR website, showcasing its preparedness and bravery. A fact-checking team of X found the same to copied from SpaceX videos, including footage from a video game ‘Call of Duty’ as also clips of Turkish drones. It busted the reality of Pakistan’s military preparedness.
Finally, Pakistan’s disinformation campaign gains steam whenever their army faces national anger for political interference as also its failure and losses in containing freedom movements in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It shifts blame onto India for supporting these actions. Interestingly, whenever India accuses Pak of supporting terrorism, proof of India being involved in Pak’s internal problems magically emerges, as it recently did in the DGISPR press conference, where he accused India of being involved in ‘state-sponsored cross-border terrorism against Pakistan.’
Multiple independent institutions have debunked Pakistan’s fake propaganda. The EU Disinfo Lab, an independent non-profit organisation, has mentioned that Pakistan runs 750+ fake media websites across 119 countries promoting anti-India narratives apart from fake NGOs impersonating real organizations, one such being the fake ‘European Parliament Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan.’ Its report adds that Pakistan has on occasions even ‘resurrected’ deceased human rights activists to push their agenda. Their detailed exposure, published a few years ago, embarrassed Pakistan.
The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a nonprofit entity, identified state sponsored Pakistani networks flooding disinformation during incidents like the Balakot airstrike, abrogation of Article 370 etc. Several Pakistani troll networks were banned by Facebook and Twitter following GDI reports.
Other independent organizations which have made similar claims include the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and the International Fact-Checking Network, which is a network of global fact-checking organizations under common ethical standards.
Their reports have boosted global trust in Indian fact-checking results as also enabled foreign governments, media, and organizations to verify facts independently without relying on Pakistani narratives. Even the UN has rejected multiple Pakistan’s claims and its fake dossiers stating these lack ‘independent corroboration.’
Pakistan’s systematic weaponization of disinformation as an extension of its state policy, intending to discredit India, has failed to achieve results due to exposures by international agencies and Indian fact-checking actions. These have eroded Pakistan’s international credibility and isolated its propaganda machinery while reinforcing India’s stand as a transparent, responsible democracy.
At the end of the day, Pakistan remains globally classified as the state sponsor of terrorism, while India a respected and responsible global power. It is time Pakistan realizes that its disinformation campaigns are more damaging to its own reputation rather than lowering India’s image.
About the Author
Maj Gen Harsha Kakkar
Retired Major General Indian Army