Escaping Accountability: Pro India NGO Officials Resigned after EU DisinfoLab report

Key officials of South Asian Democratic Forum, a pro India-NGO that was exposed by Brussels based fake news watchdog EU DisinfoLab for campaigning against Pakistan, have resigned from their posts.

EU DisinfoLab unmasked the true face of India for backing a network comprising over a thousand mostly Indian news outlets and domains operating across the world systematically influenced international opinion against Pakistan. South Asian Democratic Forum was one of them.

Soon after forums got exposed, it was reported that Board members of South Asian Democratic Forum have resigned as a loophole to skip the accountability.

EU DisinfoLab unveiled that SADF organized at least ten events such as demonstrations in front of the UN Broken Chair monument in Geneva, outside the UN headquarters in New York, events on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, or in front of Pakistan Embassy in Ottawa.

Back on 9 December 2020, EU DisinfoLab blew the lid off a systematic campaign stoking adverse views on Pakistan: a concerted program under the umbrella of the shadowy Delhi-based Srivastava Group.

EU DisinfoLab dug up startling revelations of a massive cross-continental network of hundreds of news outlets and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — ten of them accredited with the United Nations — that debilitated Pakistan’s image and may have served as extensions and promoters of the Indian government’s foreign policy objectives.

The major findings of the report, which ‘uncovered an entire network of coordinated UN-accredited NGOs’, some of which tied ‘directly to the Srivastava family’, suggest that the campaign was aimed at discrediting Pakistan internationally and blowing up its internal issues — such as minority rights and security. It had also been designed to influence decision-making at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the European Parliament.

The campaign also engaged in identity theft, including stealing the name of Martin Schulz, former president of the European Parliament, and an image of James Purnell, a former British government minister.

Entities apparently used to bring Pakistan into disrepute included NGOs such as Balochistan House, Gilgit Baltistan Forum, Balochistan Forum, European Organization for Pakistani Minorities, and the South Asia Democratic Forum.