Malik M Ashraf
A few days ago Euro Disinfo Lab revealed that India has been trying to malign and portray Pakistan in dismal colours before the international community by generating and propagating false and fake news through a network of 750 fake media outlets and 550 website domain names in 162 countries. Reportedly Indian RAW set up a fake front entity Srivastava Group (SG) with headquarters in New Delhi in 2005 which over the last fifteen years developed this network.
The revelations by the Disinfo Lab have been corroborated by a report that Ofcom, the media regulatory in the UK, has imposed a financial penalty of twenty thousand pounds on Republic Bharat TV for serious broadcasting breaches after the channel aired hate speech against Pakistan and its people. The regulatory authority in its findings said “We considered the statements of the guests in the programme to be expressions of hatred based on intolerance of Pakistani people and that the broadcast of these statements spread, incited, promoted and justified such intolerance towards Pakistani people among viewers. The statement made by a retired Major General of the Indian Army, which clearly threatened that the Indian military would attack Pakistani civilians in their homes, were an expression of hatred and desire to kill by a figure of authority. In our view the broadcast of these statements also promoted hatred and intolerance towards Pakistani people. The overall tone of the discussion was provocative, comparing Pakistanis to donkeys and monkeys”
The programme apart from spreading hate against Pakistan and its people was also a calculated attempt to hurl threats at Pakistan. Coming from the mouth of a Major General it actually indicates the mindset of the Indian Army and political leadership of India. Former Chief of Indian Army and now Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has also been hurling threats of teaching Pakistan a lesson. Indian Defence Minister recently boasted that India was ready for both Pakistan and China.
The foregoing realities are a ranting testimony of unabated Indian hostility towards Pakistan. India all along has been a threat to the security of Pakistan but that hostility has gained unprecedented intensity since the advent of Narendra Modi as Indian Prime Minister. The BJP regime inebriated by the RSS ideology of Hindutva has promulgated anti-Muslim laws within the country and also scrapped Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to end special status of the India-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) showing disdainful defiance of the UN resolutions. With a view to diverting world attention from the blatant violations of human rights in IOJ&K and the killing spree, India has been continuously violating the Ceasefire Agreement along the LoC and the Working Boundary.
It reportedly has committed more than 3000 violations of the ceasefire and killed 278 civilians during this year. Not only that, it also has been running a sustained campaign to isolate Pakistan accusing her of supporting alleged acts of terrorism in IOJ&K. It dared to launch naked aggression against Pakistan in February 20189 when it sent planes to attack an imaginary terrorist camp at Balakot. In the light of the foregoing facts one can hardly contest the claims by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that India, as per intelligence reports, was planning to launch yet another false flag operation against Pakistan. Pakistan faces real security threat from India and there can be no two opinions about it. Pakistan has been sensitizing the global community about it since India ended special status of IOJ&K and urging it to intervene before it was too late. The likely clash between the two nuclear powers can lead to cataclysmic consequences for the entire region. But the dilemma is that the world community and the UN in spite of being informed about the Indian designs and threat to peace by the Government of Pakistan as well as the international media, remain criminally indifferent to the plight of the people of Kashmir and the prospects of war between two nuclear powers.
The reason is that the world politics and the policies pursued by the big powers which have the strongest clout in the management of global affairs are not amenable to the UN Charter, the principles enunciated in for promoting peace and regulating inter-state relations. Their actions and policies are premised on their self-perceived strategic and commercial interests and in pursuing their objectives, they even do not hesitate to flout the UN Charter and the rules and principles set by themselves in regards to inter-state relations. Legitimacy of any cause is viewed by them through the prism of their own interests. That is exactly what we are witnessing in regards to Indian actions in IO&JK and its aggressive designs against Pakistan. India is a strategic partner of the US and its Western allies and a pivotal player in this region to further the objectives of their ‘contain China policy’.
The sufferings of the people of Kashmir and UN resolutions regarding the dispute have no meaning for them. India is taking advantage of their criminal indifference. In the permeating international environment, frankly speaking, instead of looking upon others to dissuade India from her aggressive designs against Pakistan, our focus should be on enhancing our military prowess to deter India from any indiscretion, strengthening economic edifice of the country and forging impregnable national unity. If we can achieve that it would also strengthen our position for supporting the cause of Kashmiri people.
— The Islamabad-based writer is former Director Administration, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.
