Pakistan Army’s Media Wing Recruiting Youths To Spread Propaganda Against India On Social Media: Report

Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), headed by Major General Asif Ghafoor, had been recruiting youths to spread propaganda against India on social media and have recruited over 1,000 interns in one year, sources said on Thursday (2 January).

The ISPR, Pakistan Army's media wing, is organising competition every month to award youths whose tweets get retweeted the most. The prizes include job and contracts in Fauzi Foundation.

"The youths win the award when some influential social media handler across the globe endorses or questions the fake narrative against India, sent out by ISPR," said a source and added, "On Twitter and Facebook, the most followed and retweeted tweets get the award."

More than 100,000 people have participated in these competitions.

The youths have been given a detailed list of social media handles of influential Indians and have been asked to set a different narrative about Indian leaders, soldiers and bureaucrats.

Major General Ghafoor on Wednesday (1 January) tweeted a picture of the wreck of a trainer aircraft, that didn't participate in the Balakot operation, citing Pakistan had shot down the aircraft during Balakot incursion. He also claimed the Pakistan Air Force had shot down two IAF jets.

These kind of propaganda were being uploaded by ISPR every day and interns were being trained to do so every day, sources said.

The ISPR has told these youths that they are fighting a narrative warfare with India and they are as important as soldiers, according to sources.

Even before Pakistan violates ceasefire across the Line of Control, youths are being told to bombard social media with fake pictures of Indian soldiers killed in firing.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)