Indian Media Faces Humiliation Over False Claims Of ‘Civil War’ In Pakistan

Government ministers have pointed to the ridiculous claims by the Indian media and demanded that the management of the social networking platform Twitter take notice, saying that a “civil war” has broken out in Karachi.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said it was unfortunate that Twitter was “deliberately” ignoring the Indian media’s false coverage of Pakistan.

Indian media in hyper drive with fake news on Pakistan & unfortunate that @TwitterSupport delib ignoring! Facebook also indulging Indian propaganda & hate posts! Similarly Islamophobia rampant but heaven forbid if any word said implying even a querying comment on holocaust! https://t.co/F6h0Q6vRwD

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) October 22, 2020

PPP leader Sherry Rehman called Pakistan’s internal differences a sign of “political health”.

Pakistan’s internal dissent is a sign of its political health: that democracy is never one person or view; that when freedoms are curtailed people push back;that when constitutional rights r under threat the brave speak out. Indian trolls need to get a life and look to their own https://t.co/GgQght0ZqN

— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) October 21, 2020

On the other hand, the Foreign Office spokesperson also took notice of the “malicious and fabricated news and propaganda campaign” in the Indian media.

Addressing a weekly press briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson said that such campaign by the Indian media at the behest BJP-RSS government reflect a specific and well-known mindset.

The Indian media is touching new lows,” he added. “The best advice for the Indian media and the government is to focus on the ongoing protests and unrest in India.”

It may be recalled that on Wednesday, a day after Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa directed an inquiry into the arrest of opposition leader Capt (retd) Safdar, Indian broadcasters including India Today, Zee News, CNN 18 and India .Com in its report mentioned the ‘civil war-like situation’ in Karachi.

Some reports, citing another media outlet, The International Herald, said there were reports of clashes between Sindh police and the army in the country’s economic hub.

In addition, fake videos showing the clash continued to circulate on Twitter.

CNN News 18, also shared the same video and even claimed that “martial law has been imposed in Sindh”.

However, the media outlet later deleted the video from its timeline but shared another video in which similar superstitious claims were being made.

What actually happened?

On Tuesday, the Inspector General of Police (IG) of Sindh Police, at least 2 Additional Inspector Generals, 7 Deputy Inspector Generals and 6 Senior Superintendents applied for leave on October 19.

Immediately after that, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had demanded that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa conduct an institutional inquiry into the arrest of Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar.

After which the police officers had postponed their leave after taking notice from the Army Chief and ordering an immediate inquiry but contrary to Indian media reports, there was no clash or provocation.