The deployment of disinformation is not random; it serves precise strategic objectives, each designed to advance Pakistan’s geopolitical agenda.
MUMBAI: PAHALGAM AND THE ONSLAUGHT OF LIES
On April 22, 2025, the serene landscape of Pahalgam, Kashmir, was shattered by a brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 26 civilians, most of them Hindu pilgrims. Before Indian authorities could even complete preliminary investigations into the heinous act, Pakistan’s sophisticated disinformation machinery engaged its formidable apparatus. Within minutes, digital platforms were deluged with hashtags like #IndianFalseFlag and #PahalgamDramaExposed, assertively claiming that India had meticulously staged the attack. This immediate and orchestrated response marked the opening salvo in a meticulously coordinated information warfare campaign, blending cutting-edge technological deception, overt state-sponsored propaganda, and insidious appeals to religious polarization. This playbook, refined over decades of geopolitical friction, is now turbocharged by advanced artificial intelligence, presenting an unprecedented challenge to truth and stability in the region.
WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION: TACTICS AND TECHNOLOGY
The Pakistani disinformation strategy exhibits a multi-layered approach, leveraging both sophisticated technology and traditional media channels to maximize its reach and impact.
1. The Bot Armies: The sheer scale and speed of the digital assault were immediately apparent. Within 16 hours of the Pahalgam attack, over 14,000 posts under #IndianFalseFlag trended globally, dominating online conversations. Forensic analysis conducted by India Today’s OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) team revealed a striking statistic: an astounding 75% of these trending posts originated from Pakistani accounts. These digital foot soldiers—often bot networks or coordinated human amplifiers—operated in highly synchronized waves:
* Phase 1: Narrative Flooding: Initial bursts of automated accounts saturating platforms with false narratives, establishing a dominant, though fabricated, discourse.
* Phase 2: Amplification by Verified Handles: Once a narrative gained initial traction, it was amplified by seemingly legitimate, often verified, social media handles, lending it an artificial veneer of credibility.
* Phase 3: Leveraging International Allies: The fabricated content was then strategically picked up and disseminated by international media outlets sympathetic to Pakistan’s agenda, such as the Turkish state-broadcaster TRT World, further broadening its reach and perception of legitimacy.
The content itself was designed to be deeply provocative and emotionally manipulative. One chilling example involved a viral, AI-generated video that depicted an Indian female fighter pilot in chains, «arrested» by Pakistani forces – a clear attempt to humiliate and undermine Indian armed forces. Another grotesquely spliced footage of a grieving Hindu widow, manipulating her genuine distress into a celebratory dance sequence—a vile mockery of Hindu mourning rituals that epitomizes the campaign’s intent to exploit and offend.
2. Media Complicity: Pakistan’s state media apparatus functions not merely as news outlets but as an integral extension of its military’s information warfare wing. Their reporting during the Pahalgam crisis showcased flagrant disregard for journalistic ethics, instead serving as conduits for official fabrications:
* Geo News, a prominent Pakistani channel, falsely claimed that India had lost 32 drones, inventing a scale of military engagement entirely divorced from reality.
* ARY News aggressively pushed the «false flag» theory, even adding specific, equally baseless, details such as the alleged use of Israeli-made Harop drones by India in its supposed self-inflicted attack.
* Dawn, while often perceived as more independent, echoed denials of links to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the immediate aftermath, despite irrefutable evidence from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) confirming LeT’s terror designation and operational presence.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR) and the military’s chief spokesperson, became the public face of these fabrications. He audaciously accused India of bombing the Nankana Sahib Gurdwara in Punjab, a sacred Sikh pilgrimage site. This egregious lie was swiftly exposed when geolocation analysis traced his supposed «evidence» to a 2023 video from Syria, a stark example of the military-media nexus’s willingness to peddle outright falsehoods.
3. Exploiting Religious Fault Lines: Perhaps the most insidious aspect of Pakistan’s disinformation campaigns is their deliberate targeting of India’s social cohesion, exploiting religious and ethnic fault lines:
* Sikh Soldiers: Fabricated advisories were widely circulated, often via anonymous channels, warning against the deployment of Sikh personnel in counter-terrorism operations, citing a nonexistent „rebellion“ within the Indian Army. Pro-Khalistani accounts, based both within India and abroad, amplified these lies, seeking to sow disaffection among India’s Sikh community and within its armed forces.
* Hinduphobia: While Pakistani narratives condemned the Pahalgam attack, they deliberately suppressed a crucial, horrific detail: the terrorists reportedly checked victims’ religious identities by forcing them to lower their pants before execution. This act, indicative of sectarian targeting, was omitted to avoid discrediting the «false flag» narrative and to prevent any Hindu backlash.
* Muslim Scapegoating: Following India’s retaliatory strikes on terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Pakistani networks immediately pivoted to blaming Indian Muslims as «traitors.» This narrative, devoid of any factual basis, sparked vitriolic online hate trends like #DeportModiMuslims, aiming to exacerbate communal tensions within India.
THEMES AND OBJECTIVES: WHY THE LIES MATTER
The deployment of disinformation is not random; it serves precise strategic objectives, each designed to advance Pakistan’s geopolitical agenda:
1. Manufacturing Victimhood: Pakistan consistently seeks to invert perpetrator-victim dynamics in the aftermath of terror attacks originating from its soil. While India targeted legitimate terror camps in PoK in response to Pahalgam, Pakistani media inflated «civilian casualties» using recycled footage, often from the Gaza conflict. This victimhood narrative aims to:
* Garner International Sympathy: To elicit empathy from the international community and solicit diplomatic intervention, often through petitions to the United Nations or other global bodies.
* Justify Military Aggression: To frame any potential Pakistani military response as „self-defense“ against Indian „aggression,“ rather than retaliation for supporting terrorism.
2. Military Face-Saving: After India’s swift and decisive Operation Sindoor destroyed critical terror launchpads in PoK, the Pakistani military faced significant humiliation. Their information warfare response was designed to restore shattered morale and project an image of strength:
* Fake Jet Shootdowns: Doctored images of crashed Indian planes, including a fabricated picture of a downed Rafale, were circulated. The actual source of some images was traced to a 2014 Su-30 crash, indicating a deliberate deception.
* Video Game Propaganda: Clips from the popular military simulation video game Arma 3 were brazenly presented as “proof” of downed Indian drones, illustrating a shocking level of disregard for truth.
3. Diplomatic Diversion: A key objective of the disinformation campaign is to divert international attention from Pakistan’s enduring infrastructure of terrorism. By accusing India of «war crimes» or «false flags,» Pakistan attempts to muddy the diplomatic waters and dilute any international pressure to dismantle its terror networks. At the UN, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar cited the fictional «Nankana Sahib strike»—a lie debunked within hours—but it served its immediate purpose of creating a point of contention and deflecting serious scrutiny.
KEY ACTORS: THE DISINFORMATION ECOSYSTEM
The effectiveness of Pakistan’s disinformation lies in its sophisticated ecosystem of actors:
1. The Military-Media Nexus: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), led by DG ISPR Lt. Gen. Chaudhry, remains the central orchestrator. Its office has been directly implicated in commissioning fake surrender videos and generating AI content designed to deceive. Mainstream journalists in Pakistan, such as Kamran Khan of Geo TV, frequently act as unofficial proxies, parroting military talking points without independent verification, blurring the lines between news and propaganda.
2. International Amplifiers: Pakistan’s narratives find resonance beyond its borders. Turkey’s state-backed TRT World, for instance, aired DG ISPR’s claims verbatim, extending the reach of Pakistani propaganda to a broader global audience. Similarly, Chinese state-backed outlets often echoed «Indian aggression» narratives, aligning with Beijing’s strategic interests. Worryingly, certain Western influencers, such as Jackson Hinkle in the U.S., with a substantial following of 2.3 million, unwittingly (or wittingly) amplified hashtags like #IndianFalseFlag, further mainstreaming the disinformation.
3. The Khalistan Nexus: A disturbing aspect of this ecosystem is the direct collaboration between pro-Khalistani accounts (e.g., @SikhsForJustice) and Pakistani intelligence operatives. This nexus actively partners to spread secessionist content targeting India. A particularly potent example was a fake «Sikh soldier» audio clip, featuring an AI-generated voice refusing orders from his seniors—a calculated attempt to spark mutiny that went viral across Punjab.
INDIA’S COUNTERMEASURES AND THE ROAD AHEAD
India’s countermeasures—including 24/7 cyber monitoring, rapid fact-checking by government bodies like the PIB, and robust global diplomatic outreach—have been crucial in limiting, though not fully neutralizing, the damage. The speed and scale of AI-powered disinformation, however, present unprecedented challenges.
Pakistan’s sophisticated information campaign following the Pahalgam attack exposes critical vulnerabilities in the digital architecture of the modern age. There is an urgent global need for robust regulation and the mandatory watermarking of AI-generated content. Major social media platforms like Meta and X (formerly Twitter) must significantly increase their investment in content moderation, particularly in South Asian languages. Public education campaigns are crucial to enhance media literacy, equipping citizens with the critical thinking skills to identify deepfakes and other forms of manipulated content. Simple visual cues, such as distorted hand anatomy in AI-generated videos, can be highlighted as red flags for the general public.
The Pahalgam attack and subsequent Indian retaliation starkly exposed Pakistan’s sophisticated disinformation machinery, weaponizing AI and social media to deny culpability and sow discord. Countering these insidious narratives demands global vigilance, robust platform accountability, and enhanced media literacy. For India, defending its sovereignty now hinges as much on winning the information war as on securing its borders.
* Brijesh Singh is a senior IPS officer and an author (@brijeshbsingh on X). His latest book on ancient India, “The Cloud Chariot” (Penguin) is out on stands. Views are personal.