Rakhshanda Mehtab<\/p>\n
If Bollywood scriptwriters ever runs short of plot ideas, they need only turn to India\u2019s propaganda playbook for inspiration. Take the recent killing of Mufti Shahmir, a Pakistani religious scholar shot dead inside a mosque during Ramadan. According to a growing chorus of Indian social media accounts, Mufti Shahmir wasn\u2019t just a preacher, he was a jet-setting \u201cIran-based businessman\u201d who orchestrated the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, India\u2019s beloved spy.
\nIn a single stroke, Mufti Shahmir a man known locally for his sermons on community harmony has been posthumously promoted to international espionage villain. Forget Bollywood; this is geopolitical fan fiction at its finest. By the logic of these claims, Mufti Shahmir was simultaneously a cleric in Balochistan, a tycoon in Iran, and a puppet master who outsmarted India\u2019s entire intelligence apparatus.
\nLet\u2019s talk about Kulbhushan Jadhav. The man India paints as a kidnapped innocent is, in fact, a convicted terrorist who was arrested in Balochistan in 2016. Jadhav didn\u2019t wander into Pakistan by accident. He confessed, on camera, to working for India\u2019s intelligence agency, RAW, and to funneling money and weapons to separatist groups. His capture was a rare public exposure of India\u2019s covert destabilization campaigns on Pakistani soil. But now, years later, India wants the world to believe a random scholar from Balochistan masterminded Jadhav\u2019s arrest? It\u2019s nonsense, but nonsense with a purpose: to muddy the waters and absolve its proxies.
\nSpeaking of proxies, let\u2019s address the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the militant group that proudly claimed responsibility for Shahmir\u2019s killing. The BLA isn\u2019t some misunderstood \u201cfreedom fighter\u201d group. It\u2019s a banned terrorist outfit with a well-documented history of targeting civilians, and as multiple investigations have shown a beneficiary of Indian funding and arms. India\u2019s silence on the BLA\u2019s role here is deafening. Instead, its propaganda machine has pivoted to a classic tactic: accuse the victim. By falsely linking Mufti Shahmir to Jadhav, India seeks to legitimize his murder and whitewash its own patronage of violence.
\nWhat\u2019s most grotesque isn\u2019t just the lies, it\u2019s the context. Mufti Shahmir was killed in a mosque, during Ramadan. A month when even warring factions often pause hostilities. Yet the BLA, allegedly bankrolled by India, chose this moment to strike. The message is clear: no sanctuary is sacred, no moral line too stark for those fueled by foreign agendas.
\nThis isn\u2019t an isolated incident. From Lahore to Karachi, attacks linked to India-backed groups have targeted civilians for years. Each time, India\u2019s playbook repeats: deny, deflect, and deploy troll armies to muddy the waters. Mufti Shahmir\u2019s case is no different. By painting him as a spy, India aims to legitimize his killing and sanitize its own role.
\nThe international community\u2019s silence on India\u2019s proxy wars is deafening. When a scholar is murdered in a mosque, and the perpetrator\u2019s patron spins fairy tales to evade blame, it\u2019s not just Pakistan\u2019s concern, it\u2019s a test of global conscience. Will the world continue to tolerate a nuclear-armed state outsourcing terrorism? Or will it finally demand answers about the BLA\u2019s sponsors and Jadhav\u2019s actual crimes?
\nMufti Shahmir was no businessman. He wasn\u2019t based in Iran. He was a religious scholar, a man whose life revolved around sermons, community service, and the quiet rhythms of faith in Balochistan. To inflate him into a shadowy transnational operative is not only absurd but grotesquely disrespectful. Imagine, for a moment, the moral bankruptcy required to weaponize a man\u2019s death to twist his legacy into a pawn for geopolitical point-scoring. Mufti Shahmir\u2019s death is a tragedy. But India\u2019s absurd allegations insult the intelligence of anyone paying attention. The truth is simpler and darker: a man of peace was killed by militants, likely funded by a neighbor playing a dangerous game. No amount of creative storytelling can mask that.<\/p>\n
The writer is a freelance Content Writer & Columnist. She can be reached at: rakhshandamehtab @gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rakhshanda Mehtab If Bollywood scriptwriters ever runs short of plot ideas, they need only turn to India\u2019s propaganda playbook for inspiration. Take the recent killing of Mufti Shahmir, a Pakistani religious scholar shot dead inside a mosque during Ramadan. According to a growing chorus of Indian social media accounts, Mufti Shahmir wasn\u2019t just a preacher, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[13341],"class_list":{"0":"post-467624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-rakhshanda-mehtab"},"yoast_head":"\n