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Hybrid war

Dirty Game

A report released by ANI to all mainstream Indian news outlets claiming that former Pakistani diplomat Zafar Hilaly had ‘admitted to 300 deaths in the 2019 Balakot airstrike’ turned out to be fake news.

By J. Enver | February 2021

dirty-game

On January 9 this year, social media enthusiasts were shocked to learn from various Indian online news outlets that the former Pakistani diplomat Agha Hilaly had appeared in a TV show on a Pakistani TV channel. In the show, he was reported to have admitted that a airstrike by Indian jets on Balakot on the Pakistan side of Kashmir on February 28, 2019, had resulted in 300 casualties, quoting top government sources.

The news may have been part of just another day in the life of Indian media which is constantly engaged in Pakistan-bashing and stops at nothing to revile their neighbour. The recent revelations by the EU Disinfo Lab demonstrate how the Indians do it – and have been doing for the last 15 years.

However, what was really outrageous was the fact in the January 9, 2021 news story that a very senior Pakistani diplomat who had died 20 years ago (in 2000), was being referred to as the person who had appeared in the Pakistan news show. (This was Agenda Pakistan on Hum News presented by Amir Zia.)

Knowing that, Amir Zia, is a highly respected journalist, he couldn’t have been the one who pulled Mr. Agha Hilaly out of the grave to do the news show with him. Obviously, this was the work of the Indian media who are so adept in the business of news gathering that they can even extract a long-departed person with confidence and never have the need to do any fact-checking.

The news was run by the digital platforms of such respected Indian news outlets as NDTV, The Economic Times, Republic, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Deccan Herald, Business Today, CNBC TV 18 and many others. However, credit must go to the Indian media that they have the wherewithal to quote even dead people without any shame.

A point of embarrassment and dishonour for the Indian media came when the news outlets realized that the person who appeared in Agenda Pakistan was not the long-dead Agha Hilaly but his son Zafar Hilaly, who is also a retired ambassador and they quietly removed the story.

It also came to light that the video released by ANI had been thoroughly disfigured before being released. From the video transcript, it was clear that at no point did Ambassador Zafar Hilaly admit that there were 300 casualties in the Balakot airstrike.

In a tweet on January 10, Zafar Hilaly confirmed that his statement was ‘cut, spliced and edited.’

His tweet read: “The extraordinary extent to which the Indian Govt. has gone to cut, splice and edit the tape of my Hum TV appearance suggests their desperation to prove what they failed to do, lend credence to Modi’s lies about Balakot and his farcical claims.”

In another tweet a little while later on the same day, Zafar Hilaly wrote: “The Times of India has an item based on the cut, spliced and edited tape of my Hum TV talk. Lacking first-hand proof re Balakot, Modi is desperate for 3rd party confirmation for his lies and, not finding any, is doing a terrible job making it up.”

This is a good example of how India has been up to its dirty tricks against Pakistan for many years. It is clear that while the Indian clandestine media machinery has stepped up its activities under the extremist Narendra Modi, who came to power as Prime Minister of India in 2014, Indian efforts to disfigure Pakistan’s image go back to many years before – surely with the knowledge of those Indian leaders who belonged to India’s Congress Party. After all, it was Lal Bahadur Shastri, a Congress prime minister, who invaded Pakistan in 1965 and it was Indira Gandhi, again a Congress leader, who was instrumental in dismembering Pakistan in 1971.

An open-source investigation conducted by the EU Disinfolab shows that the operation led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by ANI began in 2005 and is still continuing.

The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent. Its long-term objectives are to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings and to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India. This would damage the reputation of other countries and ultimately India would benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.

To do so, the operation consists of support to minorities and human rights NGOs and think-tanks. Use is made of members of the European Parliament to create a mirage of institutional support from European institutions to these minority groups, in favour of Indian interests and against Pakistan and China.

EU Disinfolab maintains an active presence in Geneva and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council through side-events and demonstrations in support of minority rights and impersonation of extinguished UN-accredited NGOs. Use is also made of speaking slots reserved for various NGOs whose original missions seem totally unrelated.

Fake media has been created by India in Brussels and Geneva and across the world. Repackaging and dissemination of fake news is carried out through ANI (Asian News International) and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries - to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan.

This is all the more reason that Pakistani media need to keep more vigilant than ever. They are up ageinst India’s hybrid war against Pakistan. Every Indian move to create and spread fake news against Pakistan must be duly noticed and countered and the Indians made to realize that the game is over for them.

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