At every critical juncture inside India, our eastern neighbor resorts to carrying out a false flag operation to deviate attention of its domestic and international audience from the happen­ings inside the country. Most of the time it is Pakistan that becomes victim of In­dia’s bellicosity. This trend has been more obvious dur­ing the BJP’s regime espe­cially under PM Modi. Now that elections in India are just around the corner, fear looms large that Indian leadership might opt for such impru­dent undertakings.

India has a history of orchestrating false flag operations against Pakistan through disinformation campaigns via media. So far, India has used false flag operations on different occasions which triggered the situation lead­ing to far-reaching consequences be­tween both countries. Tracing back the recent history, the Ganga hijacking in 1971, the Indian parliament attack in 2001 leading to Twin Peak Crisis, Godhra train burning in 2002, Sam­jhauta Express bombings in 2007, Mumbai attack in 2008, Pathankot airbase attack in 2016, Uri attack in 2016 and Pulwama suicide attack in 2019, all led to serious consequences between the two nuclear powers.

Interestingly, in year 2023, Pakistan frequently prompted the world of in­tended false flag operations against it by India. In January 2023, just days before Indian Republic Day, Paki­stan unearthed an operation was be­ing planned by the Indian Army and the police in the Poonch sector of IIOJ&K. The Pakistani intelligence agencies even identified the protag­onists namely Bashir and two of his associates, Aalam and Aslam. A false flag operation was also tried in April 2023, days ahead of the G20 summit. It was again on 21st of May 2023, that the Modi regime conducted false flag operation in Poonch district, on 14th of September 2023 in Islamabad dis­trict and on 28th of October 2023 in Neelam. They blamed Pakistan for these incidents. On 5th of October 2023, Indian media accused Pakistan of supporting attack in Rajouri. In fact, an Indian Major himself had killed 5 Indian soldiers by firing. In the same vein, in December 2023, when the In­dian troops came under attack at Sa­rankote in Poonch district, the Modi regime immediately blamed Pakistan, although the area was 15 to 20 kms away from the Line of Control (LoC). Post incident, RAW’s fake “X” accounts and biased media started accusing Pakistan without evidence.

The incumbent BJP led government has a tendency of carrying out human rights violations against the Kashmiris in particular and other minorities in general across the country. They have serious allegations now also about the overseas killing plots revealed by Canada and the US besides Pakistan. In order to divert world’s attention from their atrocities and wrong do­ings, the BJP led government takes shelter of false flag operations and concocted media hype which stir up anti-Pakistan sentiments. The atten­tion of targeted audience is thus de­viated from the actual transgressions of the government.

But this has become a norm and even voices from inside India are be­ing raised against the government on this particular issue. For instance, Satya Pal Malik, former Governor of occupied Kashmir, and Ravish Kumar a journalist, revealed that the Pulwa­ma attack was a false flag operation and therefore criticized the Modi gov­ernment for it. The current fears seem genuine because the upcoming elec­tions; a significant event in the histo­ry of the country wherein BJP retains to hold power for another term, might invite temptation for yet another false flag. It is especially important when the Indian government is being inter­nationally criticized for its overseas killing plots. But the type of false flag that India has been carrying out is too obvious now. It is therefore expect­ed that Indian government might try something new this time to achieve its political objectives.

Indian government, like any oth­er, makes full use of media power to propagate its self-generated narra­tive. The uniqueness with Indian gov­ernment and the media is that they do it without facts and investigation. They just spread the news and anal­ysis on it short of any factual posi­tion. That sometimes even deprive them of logics also but the propaga­tion is too extensive that it is regis­tered with the audience. Also, the gov­ernment blocks channels and outlets which could bring other side of the story to the public. The public opinion is swayed against the facts and logics by involving famous personalities so as to bring credibility to the news. But all this sounds quite below the civility.

It is hoped that India this time di­gresses from its general practice and takes heed of the intricacies involved in such misadventures between the two nuclear neighbors. The incum­bent government of India must seek public votes on the basis of its perfor­mance over the past few years and not the sympathy votes for their wrong­doings. It is hoped that India will come out of its obsession with the false flag operation and set a new normal.

Reema Shaukat
The writer works as Communication Strategist at the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad and can be reached at reema.asim81@
gmail.com