Islamabad, Pakistan: The intelligence agencies have submitted a detailed report to the Federal government about how PTI is spreading fabricated videos regarding the chaos it created in Islamabad from November 24 to 26. The target of spreading such videos is the image of the government of Pakistan, law enforcement agencies, and Pakistan as a country.
According to sources, intelligence agencies have suggested to the Federal Government that there is need of an effective online fact-checking system through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to stop this kind of fake news and propaganda. Moreover, they have also suggested that the government should run awareness campaigns among the public that anti-national forces are now fully engaged in the anti-state ambitions of the political party. Given this situation, the people of Pakistan should not fall for any fake propaganda.
Furthermore, there are suggestive notes that the government should also view fabricated news being published in foreign media, particularly in Western media and media managers should work proactively and counter and respond to such content appearing in foreign media that is totally baseless and cooked.
One of the examples is an extraordinary campaign that is constantly targeting Pakistan with dangerous fabricated material. One such example is two articles published in one week by ‘Drop Site News’ that were cooked by two USA-based journalists who had been publishing unfounded pieces in the past against Pakistan. Some of their pieces were published in ‘The Intercept’. ‘Drop Site News’ is owned by its co-founders, journalists Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim who in July 2024, left’ The Intercept’ to co-found Drop Site News which operates through fiscally sponsored by the Social Security Works Education Fund.
Fake news and extremism are being planned as part of a well-thought-out strategy by both internal and external elements, to destabilize Pakistan.
It has been observed that even after the disastrous failure of the final protest call given by PTI, this anarchist party is not stopping. To divert attention from the failure of the final protest call, this party is implementing a terrible plan, which needs to be remedied on time. In this regard, the party’s social media activists are conspiring to create a fake narrative through fake videos and photos. These videos will claim that anti-government prisoners are being kept in Pakistani jails and detention centers under the worst torture and inhumane conditions.
On the instructions of the PTI leadership, these videos are being produced using videos of Syrian prisons established during the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. And by calling them Pakistani jails, the malicious narrative will be fueled
Inside sources further revealed that the PTI leadership had earlier claimed that hundreds of workers were killed at D-Chowk, but as soon as this narrative lost its impact, the party alleged that hundreds of workers went missing after the government crackdown on November 26. The aim is to defame the government and the armed forces and gain international sympathy.
The most worrying aspect of such a plan is to present it in a way that the state is committing atrocities on Pashtuns on ethnic grounds. This is the same narrative often used by Hostile Intelligence Agencies (HIAs), which use it to fuel the grievances and extremist ideologies of the Pashtun and Baloch communities and justify their support for terrorist organizations like TTP (officially known as Fitna-ul-Khawarij) and BLA. The majority resolution passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on December 6, 2024, on the alleged crackdown on Pashtuns in Islamabad has further reinforced this narrative.
Intelligence agencies are of the view that if the PTI succeeds in spreading these fake videos or news, it is likely to affect Pakistan’s reputation internationally as the party’s foreign access to social media further increases this risk, which targets political opponents, top leadership of law enforcement agencies and journalists through fake news.