At a joint news conference in Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Security Dr Moeed Yousaf and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mehmood, pushed for a credible investigation into the manipulation of the EU Parliament and its legislative process by these fake organisations involved in anti-Pakistan propaganda under a fully funded disinformation influence operation run by India.
“We also call on the United Nations to create processes that ensure that the international system is not manipulated through such influence operations,” Qureshi said a day after EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels based NGO, revealed how India used fake media outlets, defunct think tanks, NGOs and even a dead human right activist to target Pakistan.
An 80-page investigative report by EU DisinfoLab highlighted that the operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in the region, in particular, Pakistan and also China to a certain extent. In the long run, the campaign is aimed at bolstering India’s global perception, which will ultimately allow New Delhi to bag more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.
DisinfoLab researchers believe the operation, which has been running for the past 15 years, has employed more than 750 fake media outlets, and more than 550 domain names in 119 countries to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan feelings.
Observers believe that if such an operation was carried out by countries such as China or Russia, the reaction from the world particularly from the western countries would have been far more different.
Pakistan condemned what it said were ‘reprehensible tactics’ by India and FM Qureshi said it endorsed Pakistan’s stance that India was involved in destabilising the country.
The EU Disinfolab revealed that India’s Srivastava Group used Indian Asia News International (ANI) to spread fake news against Pakistan. Since ANI offers its services to many local and international media outlets, it helped India to give credibility to its fake campaign against Pakistan.
The international news agency, Reuters, also has an agreement with ANI. The foreign minister, however, urged Reuters to review its arrangement with the Indian newswire service.
“We also call on international news agencies especially Reuters to reconsider their existing partnership with ANI news agency – now proven to be pushing fake news from two fake Indian created websites repeatedly,” Qureshi added.
He further said that truth cannot be hidden for long adding, “The scope and extent of India’s operations against Pakistan under their hybrid war is now apparent for the world to see.” The top diplomat maintained that Pakistan would take all necessary actions to protect its interests.
“Once again, we warn the world to take heed of the RSS-BJP regime’s agenda which threatens regional peace and continues to manipulate the international system for its own nefarious ends.”SAPM on National Security Dr Moeed said that Indian actions involve criminality and breach of international law that should be raised at an international level.
He said that Pakistan will pursue a proactive policy and convey its narrative and stance to every possible forum.“Our paradigm is based on economic security and peace while India is pursuing the agenda to hinder Pakistan’s development,” Moeed added.He, however, made it clear that all such ‘hybrid war tactics' of India would be foiled.
