Date
30-07-2026
As Pakistan grapples with growing political, economic, and governance challenges, it has intensified information warfare against India to divert domestic attention and shape international opinion. The article contends that Pakistan’s propaganda apparatus exploited issues such as the NTA protests by amplifying misinformation, deploying fake social media networks, and promoting distorted narratives on Kashmir. This Issue Brief recommends that India counter these campaigns through evidence-based communication, greater transparency, proactive digital engagement, and sustained international outreach exposing conditions in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, the article distinguishes between legitimate democratic protests and attempts by hostile actors to exploit them, arguing that while student grievances deserved a fair hearing, democratic spaces should remain vigilant against manipulation by external adversaries seeking to advance their geopolitical objectives.
As Pakistan faces growing challenges and signs of internal collapse loom in the horizon, it has recently amplified and intensified its disinformation campaign, including propaganda warfare and psychological operations against India. Recently, its DGISPR, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, reportedly held a closed-door meeting with so-called journalists, media influencers, and others, instructing them to intensify the propaganda campaign against India. They were reportedly told to promote narratives that India is on the brink of imminent internal fragmentation and civil war, amplify the Khalistani movement, plant stories about India’s imminent collapse citing violence in Manipur to anti-government protests in many states, and claim that India will soon be divided. They were also reportedly instructed to discredit India’s global image by accusing it of weaponising water and attacking Muslim minorities.
Most importantly, journalists were also instructed to intensify the campaign to divert attention, as the situation in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) is reportedly becoming increasingly serious due to Pakistan’s brutal acts and human rights violations there. They were directed to shift the focus toward Indian Kashmir by promoting narratives alleging that India is carrying out demographic changes, waging a civilizational assault, and perpetrating human rights violations. They were instructed to propagate claims that Kashmiri Muslims are not allowed to offer prayers, that mosques have been locked, that the Indian Army is committing acts of sexual violence against Kashmiri women, and that 10 lakh soldiers are deployed on the streets of Kashmir. Furthermore, they were directed to aggressively plant these narratives in the international media by publishing articles, opinion pieces, and columns aimed at reinforcing these claims and shaping global perceptions.
These narratives were intensified across both Pakistan’s television media and social media, with prominent Pakistani journalists in Pakistan assigned this role.
Architecture of Pakistan’s Information Warfare
Importantly, Pakistan saw an opportunity to exploit the situation when students across India began protesting over alleged irregularities in the National Testing Agency (NTA) and demanding greater transparency and reforms in the examination system at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Consequently, numerous fake accounts, bot farms, and digital networks in Pakistan were activated to disseminate fabricated videos and exploit the situation in India. These networks spread misinformation and AI-generated fabricated videos, as was also confirmed by Indian authorities and the Delhi Police, who identified and blocked more than 480 coordinated accounts linked to these operations during these protests.
Investigations revealed that most of these same handles had previously been active during the May 2025 Operation Sindoor escalation. These networks spread false claims that the Indian Army had been deployed at Jantar Mantar to suppress protesters. Furthermore, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact-Check unit flagged the use of advanced Generative AI tools, including a viral deepfake video falsely attributed to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General N.S. Raja Subramani, which claimed that thousands of Army personnel had resigned. These coordinated efforts sought to manipulate international perception and influence the domestic political landscape through distorted reporting and fabricated digital content.
It would, however, be important to distinguish between the legitimacy of the students’ grievances and the possibility of external actors attempting to exploit the movement. There is little reason to question the students’ right to protest peacefully over examination irregularities and demand greater transparency. In a democratic society, such expressions of public concern are both legitimate and necessary. At the same time, history demonstrates that open protest spaces can occasionally attract fringe political groups, anti-social elements, or foreign information networks seeking to appropriate genuine public discontent for their own purposes. Jantar Mantar, as India’s most visible protest venue, has often drawn diverse actors with unrelated agendas. Given Pakistan’s long-standing strategy of asymmetric warfare—combining disinformation, psychological operations, and attempts to amplify internal fault lines—it would have been unsurprising if it sought to exploit the unrest to advance anti-India narratives. As the discussion in the previous paragraphs suggest that there was evidence that Pakistan did try to exploit the situation. While such acts should not diminish the legitimacy of the students’ movement, they do underscore the need for vigilance against attempts to hijack democratic protests for strategic or geopolitical ends.
Pakistan is also reportedly paying certain journalists in sections of the Western media, including Reuters, Al Jazeera, and other international outlets, and has allegedly placed sympathetic individuals within these organisations to publish articles that amplify its narratives at the global level. To execute this international narrative campaign, the ISI reportedly utilises dedicated financial resources to cultivate sympathetic contributors and place proxy columnists within influential media networks. These state-backed actors are tasked with promoting heavily slanted opinion pieces that reflect ISPR’s core narratives while presenting them as objective journalism. This effort is further facilitated by support from China and Türkiye. This trilateral alignment functions as a force multiplier, with Beijing providing advanced digital surveillance capabilities and coordinated online networks to amplify anti-India narratives, while state-affiliated media platforms in Ankara reportedly cross-publish and reinforce Pakistan’s claims on issues such as water geopolitics and minority rights, thereby attempting to lend them credibility among Western and Middle Eastern audiences.
Weaponising Public Grievances and Manufacturing a Crisis Narrative
When India’s Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, submitted his resignation, he explicitly stated that one of the reasons was to prevent external forces from exploiting the situation, stating: “Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation … I have sent my resignation letter to the prime minister.” Similarly, social activist Sonam Wangchuk also unexpectedly ended his 26-day fast, stating that he had broken it “after a long negotiation on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country.” This decision came as he appealed to his supporters to remain highly vigilant following security briefings that reportedly revealed active Pakistani proxy networks using digital deepfakes and hijacking the movement’s hashtags to orchestrate clashes and provoke police crackdowns. Bollywood stars and other influencers who had supported the movement also issued statements shortly afterward after being informed that Pakistan and other inimical countries were allegedly attempting to exploit the situation.
However, Pakistan suffered its biggest setback when India’s Education Minister resigned, as its strategy to exploit the protests for political and psychological gains was effectively thwarted, and its expectations that the unrest would continue were dashed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed the nation live on Instagram, explicitly instructing his cabinet ministers and public representatives to bypass bureaucratic channels and directly engage with the youth to address their concerns transparently. Following this, the Indian government swiftly announced a series of concrete administrative measures, including structural reform bills, stringent anti-paper leak ordinances, and a completely revamped and more robust examination system aimed at ensuring greater transparency.
Moreover, Pakistan’s media ecosystem aggressively portrayed the situation as if India’s entire Gen Z population were rebelling against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a full-scale political uprising, deliberately concealing the fact that the students were solely demanding institutional reforms in the national examination system. Through this narrative, it sought to project the protests as an emerging internal security crisis and evidence of India’s imminent political instability. After India announced its administrative and public outreach measures, the propaganda campaign slowed down significantly. This sudden de-escalation by Pakistan’s deep state also appeared to be deliberate, as the ISI and the military establishment reportedly feared that continuously broadcasting images of an empowered, reform-oriented student movement in India could inspire Pakistan’s own frustrated Gen Z population to launch similar accountability protests against the military establishment in Islamabad. Consequently, they abruptly reduced their focus on the issue.
Now, as the situation in PoJK has turned brutal, more than 14 people have reportedly been killed and over 200 injured in violent clashes. The Pakistani establishment has imposed a heavy crackdown, including a complete internet blackout and communication restrictions across the region. To conceal the extent of the bloodshed, even those who were severely injured are reportedly being prevented from accessing hospitals, where the Pakistan Army and security forces have already moved in to establish physical control. Amid this intense domestic crisis, Pakistan is likely to further intensify its propaganda campaign against India. Its state media and psychological warfare apparatus will drastically amplify narratives on Kashmir to divert attention from its own actions and brutality.
Countering Pakistan’s Kashmir Narrative Through Evidence and Ground Reality
But what should be India's strategy in Kashmir? First, the Indian media should aggressively highlight Pakistan's actions in PoJK, where innocent citizens are reportedly being ruthlessly killed, especially given the limited coverage and selective focus of sections of the international media, which have often failed to adequately highlight the crisis. For years, international media outlets such as the BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and others have selectively focused on Indian Kashmir, repeatedly portraying it through images of barbed wire, military deployments, bunkers, and conflict, thereby promoting a narrative that has sought to damage India’s image and has been readily exploited by Pakistan as part of its propaganda and psychological warfare. However, now that the Pakistan Army is committing brutal atrocities against civilians in PoJK—including directly firing on unarmed protesters carrying white flags—many of these same outlets have remained largely silent or have given the issue only limited attention. They are reluctant to report extensively because doing so challenges the long-standing agenda through which they have consistently criticised India over Kashmir. Even when some reporting does appear, it is often framed by linking the violence to poll-related unrest or broader political tensions, thereby diluting the gravity of the Pakistan Army's actions against innocent civilians. Such selective and agenda-driven reporting not only raises serious questions about the consistency and objectivity of international media coverage on Kashmir but also exposes their glaring double standards and hypocrisy.
Similarly, even within Kashmir, several mainstream political leaders, self-styled social activists, Jamaat leaders, and others who are often quick to speak out whenever anything happens in Indian Kashmir have remained conspicuously silent over the reported brutal crackdown on civilians in PoJK by the Pakistan Army. Despite reports of civilians being killed, more than 40 days of continuous protests for basic rights, and unarmed protesters carrying white flags allegedly coming under fire, many of them have not issued even a single statement condemning the reported violence or expressing solidarity with the victims. Their silence speaks volumes. It starkly exposes the glaring hypocrisy and selective nature of their activism and raises serious questions about the long-standing agenda they have pursued on Kashmir, as well as their broader agenda to undermine India.
India should also systematically raise concerns regarding the actions of the Pakistani military at major global forums, including the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the United Nations Security Council, by presenting credible documentary evidence, verified reports, geospatial analysis, and other forms of documentation highlighting human rights violations by Pakistani security forces, including arbitrary detentions, restrictions on movement, the enforcement of complete communications blackouts, and the denial of basic socio-economic rights, including access to livelihood opportunities, essential services, and a dignified standard of living.
On the domestic counter-narrative front, India should encourage local Kashmiri maulvis and religious scholars at prominent institutions such as the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar and the Hazratbal Shrine to voluntarily record and livestream videos. This real-time ground footage would directly challenge Pakistan’s long-standing propaganda narrative that mosques in Jammu and Kashmir are closed and that Muslims are being prevented from practicing their religion. Such documentation would expose the falsehood of these claims and send a clear message to audiences in Pakistan, individuals vulnerable to radicalisation, Pakistan-based terror networks, and their propaganda machinery that Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir are free to practice their religion without restrictions. It would thereby undermine attempts to exploit religious sentiments and portray India as suppressing Islamic religious freedoms.
Concurrently, India should encourage tech-savvy digital media influencers, vloggers, and youth icons across Jammu and Kashmir to showcase ongoing major developmental initiatives, such as the operationalisation of Smart City projects, industrial corridors, and the tourism boom. Such content would directly convey to the international community that the region is witnessing development and economic progress. This ground-level transparency would help counter Pakistan’s narratives about its so-called “Azad Kashmir” while reinforcing India’s position regarding stability and governance in Jammu and Kashmir.
Furthermore, India must directly confront one of the biggest structural falsehoods in Pakistan’s long-standing propaganda strategy, which has consistently sought to convince the world that there are 10 lakh Indian soldiers heavily occupying the streets of Kashmir, forcing people into chains and keeping the region under a constant lockdown. To counter this narrative, Kashmiri religious scholars, community leaders, and local digital influencers should be actively encouraged to issue public statements and publish interactive vlogs highlighting the free and unrestricted movement of people in their daily lives. By capturing crowded local markets, festive public gatherings, and bustling night cafés, this digital outreach would expose Pakistan’s long-standing narratives before the international community.
It should also be examined why some individuals associated with separatist-leaning views in Kashmir suddenly appeared at Jantar Mantar. Were they genuinely expressing solidarity with the students, or were they encouraged by Pakistan to exploit the situation and divert attention from the crisis unfolding there, particularly in PoJK??
From Jammu and Kashmir, some leaders, such as MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, also went there. However, instead of addressing issues related to examination transparency, he spoke about restoration of Article 370. What was the connection between these two distinct issues? He shifted the narrative to regional politics, stating, “Did Article 370 come from Pakistan’s Constitution or India’s Constitution? These were the constitutional guarantees of this country.” He further used the platform to declare, “Kashmir has lived through this for years. Today, the same is happening to you. This chain must break.”
It appears that certain actors attempted to hijack the protests and use the platform to advance a broader political agenda beyond the immediate concerns of students. In a vibrant democracy, citizens have the right to raise genuine concerns, seek accountability, and demand institutional reforms through peaceful and constitutional means. However, in the contemporary information environment, internal challenges and public grievances can also be exploited by hostile actors seeking to advance their strategic objectives. While genuine democratic concerns and student grievances must always be addressed through transparent dialogue and institutional reforms, there is also a need to remain vigilant against attempts to manipulate such movements for political or geopolitical purposes. India must ensure that democratic spaces remain open for legitimate voices while preventing external actors and extremist networks from exploiting domestic issues to create instability and distort international perceptions.
Idrees Aftab is a freelance commentator on global strategic affairs, particularly focussed on developments in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. The views expressed here are his own.
