Staff Report
Islamabad: The Indian media outlets have been mocked and ridiculed by the Twitter community of Pakistan for spreading fake stories about an imaginary civil war in Karachi. The Indian media houses and various verified accounts had been found spreading completely baseless stories about a ‘civil war’ in Karachi by claiming gun battles and even bombings. Interestingly, some reports were claiming clashes between military troops and police forces in the port city of Pakistan while quoting opinions of prominent Indian figures over the imaginery battlefields.
The Pakistani Twitter users gave befitting reactions to such reports which may have shocked the viewers of India media outlets in term of its credibility and verification of sources of reports. Let’s have a look first on the false reports spread by the Indian media:
Major Surendra Poonia, an ex-Indian major and a member of India’s ruling political party, claimed a civil war broke out in Pakistan and 10 police officers killed in ‘Karanchi’ while civilians crushed by armoured vehicles. India’s Times Now had also reported ‘massive unrest in Karachi’ alongside protests against army chief.
OpIndia.com also tried to convince its readers with sharing a false story with caption, “Pakistan in ‘civil war’ mode after Sindh Police and Army clash after police chief was kidnapped.”
Pakistani community on Twitter found it very interesting to discover a new locality in Karachi, ‘Gulshan e Bagh’, through an Indian post which claimed, “Heavy fire fight between Pak Army and Sindh Police is going on in Gulshan e Bagh area of #Karachi after Pak Army tried to take custody of a Superintendent of Sindh Police Md Aftab Anwar”
Here is how Pakistan’s Twitterati reacted!
A user tweet, “Due to the severity of clashes between Pak Army and Sindh Police in Gulshan-e-Bagh I decided to risk my life and came out to cover the situation. Please mention all the Indian accounts spreading valuable information about Karachi and ask them to help us.”
Earlier, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) stated in its report that a pattern of Indian propaganda against Pakistan on digital media that grew exponentially after 2018 General Elections in Pakistan which hovers around largely 4 key themes. The prime target of Indian propaganda remains the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and CPEC Authority chairman Asim Saleem Bajwa. The second target of the Indian propaganda was Pakistan armed forces, spreading chaos and lawlessness in Pakistan and Kashmir.
