Pakistan to rebut Indian falsehood with truth: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would be responding to the "Indian falsehood with [the] truth", the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement released Friday evening. Taking to Twitter, FO Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said Pakistan would respond to the "Indian Chronicles" — EU DisinfoLab's investigation report revealing India's disinformation campaign against Pakistan — by sharing accurate information with the international community, adding that the country would counter "India’s anti-Pakistan propaganda through positive outreach to the international community."

He added that Pakistan will reply to "India's state-sponsored terrorism" with "our desire for peace".

In another post on Twitter shortly afterwards, Chaudhri underlined how India "regrettably" and "flagrantly dishonoured its international obligations and deliberately violated international law".

"Solemn pledges were made by the Indian leadership before Kashmiris, Pakistan, the [international] community, and before its own people to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination," he said.

In November last year, the EU DisinfoLab had revealed that over 750 India-backed websites covering more than 119 countries were operational for about 15 years with the sole purpose of undermining Pakistan within the European Union and United Nations.

The investigation unmasked the Srivastava Group backing the operation — termed "the Indian Chronicles" — while Indian news agency, the Asian News International (ANI), was used to boost it. The campaign had started in 2005 and is still functional.

The EU DisinfoLab had highlighted the operation's long-term objectives, which included promoting content against Pakistan and China and to consolidate power for India at international forums such as the EU and UN.

To pursue their objective, the operation created an illusion of institutional support from European institutions to these minority groups against Pakistan and China.

Fake media was created in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and then repackaged and disseminated via the ANI and obscure local media networks — at least in 97 countries — to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India.

Highlight the ANI's role in promoting pro-Indian content, the EU DisinfoLab said the EU Chronicle op-eds received "immediate repackaging" by the publication.

The ANI quotes these op-eds as genuine articles from “independent media EU Chronicle”.

"ANI — which is considered as one of the biggest news agencies in India and the largest television agency of India — remains the only press agency [that] extensively cover[s] the activities of dubious NGOs in Geneva," the research said.

After uncovering ANI's reporting on these developments, the EU DisInfoLab discovered the Big News Network and the World News Network.