Breaking down Pak's fake narrative factory: How it colluded with 'allies' to launch 'info war' against India

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) India’s Operation Sindoor gave a deadly blow to Pakistan, demolished its terror infrastructure and also left its political leadership humiliated and exposed before the world.

The Indian military decimated its safe havens for terrorists as well as Pakistani air bases in response to its escalation; however, the rogue nation stuck to its character and kept upping the ante against Indian action.

Defeated on the battlefield, it opened a new front against India and desperately attempted to sell false narratives about India’s ‘defeat’, the fall of its fighter jets, to project itself as a ‘winner’ in the digital space. A couple of its friendly nations, allegedly Turkiye and China, also helped it in peddling this fabricated narrative by tacit or direct means.

An X user has documented a chain of events as to how Pakistan engaged in a blitz of ‘information warfare’ and peddled full-blown propaganda to paint India in a poor light and get itself an upper hand.

As India struck its popular airstrip and airbases, Pakistan started leveraging its access to Western media to push anti-India propaganda. Pakistan journalists at CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg, and NYT began publishing anti-India narratives with baseless claims and without any evidence, claimed the X user.

Instances of data fudging, doctored videos for the anti-India narrative

On May 8, DG ISPR peddled its first official lie as it claimed that the Pakistan Army didn't attack civilian areas in Amritsar and accused India of 'false flag'. The very next day, they went on chest-thumping, celebrating Pakistan's attack in Amritsar.

DG ISPR, addressing the media, played a doctored clip of Wing Commander Vyomika Singh 'admitting' to Pakistan's attack, however, the fact was that the Pakistani Army’s spokesperson conveniently cut out a part from the video, where the officer was explaining how Pakistan targeted civilian areas.

On May 1, 2025, Pakistan’s ISPR ran a disinformation campaign by circulating 'classified RAW documents' to target India.

On May 11, DGISPR used a 2-year-old image from 2023 to falsely show their Navy's preparedness against India.

DGISPR also manipulated a news clip from a reputed Indian news channel and claimed that an Indian airfield was destroyed, however, the original footage was about Pakistan's airfield being hit by Indian forces.

While the Pakistani establishment, backed by influencers, ran a cocktail of misinformation, it was the DGISPR which officially propagated the fake propaganda.

In another blatant fabrication, DGISPR showed an edited TV news clip and falsely claimed that Indian media had admitted to the destruction of their own airbases.

The Pakistani government's official handles went to the extent of sharing a video game clip, claiming it showed them shooting down Indian aircraft. Later, the footage was found to be from a computer game.

Pakistan also invented a fake CNN graphic showing casualty statistics, which the US-based channel never showed.

The Pakistan-based social media handles also chipped in to peddle a false agenda. Many handles fabricated a story of the capture of Wing Commander Shivangi Singh and also shared fake images across various platforms. Gulf-based channels also reported this fake propaganda, only to issue a clarification later.

Later, DGISPR admitted to this fakery and clarified on record that there was no such instance.

A video clip from 2019 was also shared as evidence of India pleading for a ceasefire with white flags at two military posts.

The Pakistani military’s information wing also dug out many videos from the past to scale up psychological advantage against India; however, all of them were debunked and exposed by India.

An old footage of sectarian clashes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2024 was recycled and recirculated as evidence of an attack on Srinagar airbase, the same was dismissed by PIB as Pakistan’s disinformation campaign.

In one of the most brazen lies, Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and also posted doctored images as "proof." These turned out to be photos from the 2024 MiG-29 crash in Rajasthan and the 2014 Su-30MKI crash in Maharashtra.

Pakistan military, badly defeated on the battlefield, tried to stage India in the info warfare and went whole hog with its plethora of fake narratives, but eventually, its information wing too stood exposed.

However, Pakistan was not alone in this game. It got help from global allies, allegedly from Turkiye and China, in peddling fake propaganda against India.

It was clearly stated by the Indian armed forces that Pakistan fired Turkiye drones to target multiple installations in India. Pakistan’s dependence on China for military assets is not a secret to anyone.

Turkiye ignited Pakistan’s ‘information war’ by amplifying false narratives, and for this, it used its state-funded media and social media propaganda machinery.

There are three specific instances which show Turkiye’s overt role in pushing Pakistani propaganda.

Turkish broadcaster TRT World reiterated DG ISPR’s fake claims, like Indian airbase destruction, despite no evidence. Its state-funded agencies, TRT World and Anadolu Agency, echoed the Pakistani narrative, laced with biased reporting and unverified claims, aimed at showing India in a poor light.

TRT gave a platform to Nasir Qadri, a Pakistani national, who pushed the Israel-India alliance narrative during the India-Pakistan 2025 conflict. Qadri accused India of adopting Israel’s settler-colonial tactics, concocted by the transnational alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan, and Jamaat-e-Islami.

Turkiye’s new-age info-warfare accounts on X retweeted and translated ISPR clips and Pakistani propaganda, thus giving it more traction and circulation globally. Its backing of the Pakistani agenda was aimed at giving credibility to Pakistan’s web of lies.

Notably, the Centre recently banned this X handle of the Turkiye broadcaster, asking to stop dishing out disinformation and cross-verify its sources.

China, which Pakistan considers its bellwether ally, also supported its online blitz against India. A slew of Chinese social media handles shared a myriad of fake news/misleading, and fabricated images and videos to buttress their claims against India.

Pakistan’s military is heavily dependent on Chinese weapons, and 80 per cent of its arsenal is believed to be built in China. Chinese-made missile systems like HQ-9 & HQ-16, and missiles PL-15 were used by Pakistan during the conflict.

Bangladesh was also hand-in-glove with Pakistan in peddling the anti-India narrative. A flurry of misinformation was shared by several Bangladeshi accounts, which sought to ‘justify’ Pakistan military’s false claims and put India on the backfoot, with false propaganda.

While Bangladesh social media handles shared fake news, a couple of its media portals, including Ekattor and Jamuna TV, sought to legitimise the campaign by giving a certain spin to news.

It claimed that Indian forces were attacking Bangladeshi civilians during Operation Sindoor and used doctored images from unrelated conflicts to buttress their claims.

--IANS

mr/dan