There is hardly any doubt that Indian leadership always poses a hostile posture towards Pakistan and seldom misses a chance to unfairly malign Pakistan through its propaganda machine, which has been weaving unfounded and misleading stories to push its anti-Pakistan agenda. In its latest report, the EU DisinfoLab, a research organization that works on tackling fake news in the European Union (EU), looks into a number of non-existent organisations, bloggers and journalists who are regularly quoted by an Indian news agency, the Asian News International (ANI), which has been accused of spreading baseless propaganda against Pakistan. This latest report, called “Bad Source” follows up on two previous investigations conducted by the research organization that revealed that the ANI regularly quotes fake news sources supposedly specializing in European affairs but they are created to push anti-Pakistan and anti-China narrative in India. The previous investigations were carried out in 2019 and 2020.
According to the EU DisinfoLab, the ANI news agency plays a relevant role in the country’s information ecosystem, providing content for many media outlets across India. It is worth mentioning that the ANI had previously been accused of reporting the Indian government’s “version of truth”. “The investigation looks into a number of non-existent organisations, bloggers and journalists who are regularly quoted by Asian News International (ANI),” reads the DisinfoLab’s blog and adds that the ANI content was also reproduced on well-known digital portals such as Yahoo News. “ANI has been using quotes from a journalist, as well as from several bloggers and supposed geopolitical experts, who do not exist,” it said. The investigation has also revealed that the fake networks are run by the Srivastava group of ANI Delhi. The report further states that fake events and demonstrations against Pakistan are organized by NGOs at the UN and UNHCR.
It is crystal clear that the motive behind these actions is to spoil Pakistan’s reputation at the international level. The fake Indian news network came to light a few years ago. Undoubtedly, India has been spending billions of dollars on running and keeping this network active, which is apparently aimed to give moral justification to its actions in the illegally occupied held Kashmir and to turn the tide against Pakistan. It is also clear that whenever India attacks Pakistan’s security, it starts spreading a certain impression around the world through fake news networks. Pakistan has always strived on the diplomatic front that all disputes with India, including the long standing Kashmir issue, which is the major cause of conflict, should be resolved peacefully, but the Indian leadership and, above all, its current Hindu nationalist government has always tried to create a war frenzy to sabotage any attempt by Pakistan to resolve the burning issues through peaceful diplomatic and political means. It is a fact that Pakistan has always been a constant target of provocative actions by India. It is clear that when India failed to present its lies about Pakistan in the international media, it set up a fake news network.
Pakistan’s security agencies have been bringing out details in this regard. The report of the EU DisinfoLAb should be placed before the United Nations as a testimony of India’s funding of fake websites to malign Pakistan. As a precaution, Pakistan and its security agencies should adopt measures to counter the fake propaganda tool of the Indian government and produce genuine content on India’s illegal and hostile actions in the occupied Kashmir and against Pakistan. The European Union and the United Nations should also take cognizance of the situation and make India accountable for its inhuman actions in illegally occupied Kashmir.
