ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday urged the United Nations, its Human Rights Council, and the European Parliament to begin credible investigations into India's propaganda and influence operation against Pakistan in light of the recent report by a Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab.
Speaking at a news conference along with Prime Minister's Special Assistant on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yousuf, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that after the recent report by the independent institution - DisinfoLab - India had been badly exposed by manipulating and misusing the international system for its own nefarious designs.
"Pakistan calls on the United Nations and UNHRC to immediately begin investigation and de-listing of the 10 fake NGOs created by India to malign Pakistan. We also call on the United Nations to create processes that ensure that the international system is not manipulated through such influence operations," the foreign minister said.
Additionally, he said Pakistan also called on the EU Parliament to begin a credible investigation into the manipulation of the EU Parliament and its legislative process by those fake organisations involved in anti-Pakistan propaganda under a fully-funded disinformation and influence operation, run by India.
"We also call on international news agencies especially Reuters to reconsider their existing partnership with ANI news agency - now proven to be pushing fake news from two fake Indian created websites repeatedly," he added.
"Truth cannot be hidden for long. The scope and extent of India's operations against Pakistan under their hybrid war is now apparent for the world to see," Qureshi said, adding that Pakistan would take all necessary actions to protect its interests.
"Once again, we warn the world to take heed of the RSS-BJP regime's agenda which threatens regional peace and continues to manipulate the international system for its own nefarious ends," he added.
The foreign minister pointed out that the EU DisinfoLab report contained detail of India's online and offline operations during the last 15 years.
Referring to the report, he said 750 fake websites were run from 116 countries with an agenda to malign Pakistan.
Additionally, he added that 10 NGOs working with the UN Human Rights Council and 550 websites were used through fake identity for the purpose of creating anti-Pakistan narrative.
He said India staged fake demonstrations in various European countries over the issue of Balochistan, adding that India also formed fake parliamentary groups such as "Friends of Balochistan" and "Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan".
He said the purpose was to mislead the European Union and the United Nations through wrong information, adding that in such cases, the official letterhead of the EU Parliament was misused for its propaganda campaign.
He said India's news agency, ANI fed stories based on wrong information to various international media organisations, adding that a fake magazine, "EPtoday.com" was also used for the purpose.
The foreign minister said that last year the so-called "EU delegation" visit to Srinagar by the Indian government was also part of the agenda to misinform the world about the situation in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir as a result of the August 5, 2019 illegal and unilateral steps.
Another objective of the propaganda was to engage in propaganda against Pakistan with regard to its measures in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and also to propagate the peaceful indigenous Kashmiri movement for right to self-determination as terrorism, he added.
Qureshi further stated that Pakistan's foreign missions had been instructed to brief the respective host countries on the DisinfoLab as well as Pakistan's earlier dossier on India's sponsorship of state terrorism against Pakistan.
He insisted that the report vindicated Pakistan's consistent stance on Indian-sponsored terrorism and it would be portrayed with renewed vigour on every international forum.
To a question, he said Pakistan had been informing the world community about the possibility of a "false flag operation" against Pakistan by India with an objective to divert attention from its domestic issues as well as the international pressure.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Moeed Yusuf said the Indian actions involved criminality and it was breach of international laws by misusing the UN organisations and the EU parliament.
"The Indian state is acting as a mafia to malign Pakistan at international level through fake material," he said, adding the network was spread to 116 countries where fake and planted articles were published against Pakistan through parliamentarians.
He urged the UN machinery and Human Rights Council to see into those facts as to how the world organisations were used to spread propaganda against Pakistan.
He said Pakistan's objective was peace and economic security, adding the world should take notice of India's nefarious designs.
He further said that Pakistan would no more pursue an "apologetic policy" with world powers, and it would go forward on its policy, including on its Kashmir policy "fearlessly".
In an apparent reference to Pakistan's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqani, the Special Assistant on National Security Division also maintained that some "so-called" Pakistanis had also remained part of the Indian propaganda who used to attend the Indian-sponsored events.
He further stated that Srivastava Group based in New Delhi was leading the campaign against Pakistan, which had also been exposed in the dossier on India's state-sponsored terrorism. He pointed out that after the release of its first report by the DisinfoLab in 2019, in which it had exposed 265 fake institutions in 65 countries active against Pakistan's interest and promoting the Indian narrative, Pakistan sent memos to a number of countries and also their intelligence agencies.
However, he added that Pakistan did not receive any satisfactory response from them.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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