Fuel Anti-Pakistani Propaganda: The Pahalgam Incident and an Immediate Fallout.
The horrible Pahalgam incident in April 2025 that killed 26 civilians sent shock waves across the region. The Indian establishment, without waiting for any neutral investigation, wasted no time pointing fingers at Pakistan and accusing it of being used as proxy for terrorism. This charge prepared the ground and began the campaign to brand Pakistan as aggressor. No evidence has been given to any international observers by the Indian authorities that supported blame directed at Pakistan.
The current time frame illustrates clearly how initial narratives hold more potential to shape perceptions than evidence does. The speed of attribution suggests disregard for due process especially in the realm of international law. Instead of building trust and mutual approaches to address and ameliorate the root causes of violence, initial narratives build mistrust and weaponize conflict.
Operation Sindoor: Military Response or Strategic Messaging?
Operation Sindoor, a quick military action by India involving missile and drone attacks on alleged terror camps in Pakistan-held Kashmir, was described by Indian government officials as precise and crucial to safeguarding national security. Pakistan denounced the operation as an unlawful breach of its territorial sovereignty while also questioning the evidence for its justification. While acknowledging the military facet of the operation, it also has to be considered a narrative event worth recording. There were vast detailed representations in detailed vivid video, digital animated map representations as well as unverified videos of sensationalized Indian drone strikes shown across India's media. The media representations turned a serious security issue into more of an event to be seasoned and dramatized to stimulate domestic support and to bolster India's global standing.
This potentially highlights the usefulness of the operation in its specific narrative tone, more so than the symbolic or political effects on the Indo-Pakistan relationship. In reality, it seems lobbying and the narrative space for influencing viewpoints both domestically and globally to be just as tactical as the strikes. This touches on a new perception of the preparedness of war with information warfare, being just as, if not more, paramount than decisive action in a theater.
The Digital Battlefield: Disinformation and Manipulated Content:
The Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor illustrate how cyberspace has become an increasingly prominent battleground. In the aftermath of the attack, there was a proliferation of misinformation on social media — deepfake videos, AI generated images, and manufactured "confessions", all meant to delegitimize Pakistan. After some time, independent fact-checkers revealed that some of the videos being offered as evidence of Indian claims were actually videos repurposed from other conflicts — including Gaza or Sudan. This type of repackaging of images and narratives creates a false narrative and misinforms an already misled world audience.
Pakistan tried to counter these claims and manipulation by putting out satellite images, and other media reports questioning the reality of India's narrative, but these reports received scant attention. The absence of parity in attention demonstrates the influence of narrative superiority with the global audience, regardless of what the evidence reveals. This kind of mass misinformation in these cases undermines confidence, discredits diplomacy, and can risk heightening military tensions. But it does highlight the necessity of media literacy and the need to separate facts from fiction, particularly in an area of war.
Implications for Regional Stability and Diplomacy:
Disinformation campaigns such as those seen in cases like Pahalgam, and Operation Sindoor will severely harm public opinion, and have wider ramifications for stability in an already precarious region in South Asia where historical and territorial grievances remain unresolved. The move from a singular attack to cross-border attacks, all motivated by manipulated narratives, has diminished conception space for necessary dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflict. When states choose propagandistic narratives over transparence, they generate opportunity for misunderstanding, ultimately intensifying conflict into open confrontation.
The Way Towards Accountability and Truth:
States, the media, and other institutions have the delicate task of being responsible for the weaponization of information as conventional arms, and that is why The Pahalgam-Operation Sindoor episode is a cautionary tale of misinformation inflaming conflict while justice is burned, and justice is rendered unavailable. Before claims of cross-border terrorism or military retaliation can be accepted, neutral international bodies have to demand credible and transparent investigations. Media institutions have an obligation to perform painstaking fact-checking, especially with politically sensitive issues.
For Pakistan, the important issue is the case of demystifying misinformation. Evidence based reports are one of the most crucial tools to Pakistan’s international reputation. Also, there is a pressing need to demystify the issues of ‘media literacy’ which helps to counter the manipulation of false information.
