BREAKING NEWS
Her dramatic attempt to use the image of a badly injured girl as proof of “Indian brutality” in Kashmir to draw attention of the international community backfired as her assertion was factually incorrect. It subsequently turned out that this photograph was clicked by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine and the subject was not a Kashmiri but a 17-year-old Palestinian girl injured during an Israeli attack in 2014.
From the photos of Saturday’s grand dinner hosted by Pakistan’s newly promoted Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir to “honour the political leadership, steadfast commitment of the armed forces, and the indomitable spirit of the people of Pakistan as demonstrated during Marka-e-Haq, Operation Bunyanum Marsoos” it appears that this formal event went off quite well.
Attended by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with several top political leaders and army Generals, this event followed Sharif’s announcement that May 10 would henceforth be observed annually as the Youm-e-Marka e Haq [Day for the Battle for Truth], which has unilaterally declared an unqualified military victory by Rawalpindi.
Field Marshal Munir’s idea to present Sharif with a framed photograph of a salvo of Pakistani rockets being fired during Operation Bunyanum Marsoos was also a face saver to make up for the complete absence of photographic evidence supporting Pakistan’s claims of having wreaked massive destruction on the Indian armed forces. Remember Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif citing “social media” as proof of his claim that five Indian Air Force fighters had been shot down?
Unfortunately, the photograph the Field Marshal publicly presented to the Prime Minister of Pakistan turned out to be the copy of a 2019 photograph attributed to Huang Hai featuring China’s PHL-03 multiple rocket launchers being fired during a PLA military exercise. Field Marshal Munir’s embarrassing faux pas not only credibly validates the old dictum that cameras don’t lie but photographs do, but also once again exposes Pakistan’s proclivity for brazenly peddling falsehood.
However, this isn’t the first time that Islamabad has plagiarised photographs to mislead the world. Readers would recall that in September 2017, Pakistan's then permanent representative to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi displayed a photograph showing the badly scarred face of a young girl whom she said was a Kashmiri injured due to pellet gun firing on protesters by Indian law enforcement agencies.
Her dramatic attempt to use the image of a badly injured girl as proof of “Indian brutality” in Kashmir to draw attention of the international community backfired as her assertion was factually incorrect. It subsequently turned out that this photograph was clicked by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine and the subject was not a Kashmiri but a 17-year-old Palestinian girl injured during an Israeli attack in 2014.
Regrettably, despite this massive embarrassment Islamabad failed to learn any lessons.
The very next year, Pakistan released a set of 20 stamps titled “Atrocities in Indian-Occupied Kashmir.” One of stamps in this series carries the image of a group of protesters with the words “Missing Persons” printed on it, conveying the impression that they were protesting against missing Kashmiris allegedly disappeared by security forces. However, just like the photograph flashed at the UN by Lodhi and the one that Field Marshal Munir presented to Sharif, the image used in this stamp too was plagiarised.
A fact-check revealed that the image on the stamp in question has been copied from a photograph credited to the Press Trust of India. It was clicked by Shirish Shete on January 19, 2014 during a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, by Roots in Kashmir, an ethnic Kashmiri Pandit group observing the 24th anniversary of the forced exodus of this community from Kashmir Valley by Pakistan sponsored Islamic terrorists.
Even during the latest Indo-Pak standoff, Islamabad shockingly tried to pass off video game footage as actual combat recording. Commenting on ‘X’, UK Defence Journal, an independent defence news and analysis website posted the footage lifted by Islamabad from a video game and mentioned that “the official account of the Government of Pakistan has posted footage from the video game ARMA 3, claiming it shows a real military response to alleged Indian aggression.”
Repeated use of such infantile ploys raises a question- does Islamabad really believe that it can fool the international community with such dim-witted assertions? The answer is a firm ‘No’; simply because Pakistan’s diplomatic corps as well as the army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] are definitely not a congregation of morons. But if both Islamabad and Rawalpindi know that their ‘fairy tales’ don’t impress the international community, why do they persist with the same?
It’s a well known fact that Pakistan’s disinformation programme is overseen by Rawalpindi and not Islamabad. Since Rawalpindi fiercely protects both its turf and extra-constitutional powers that it enjoys, the target audience for the army’s propaganda is not the international community but the very people of Pakistan. Though it may sound odd, a dispassionate analysis will definitely confirm this inference.
Daft attempts like unashamedly plagiarising photographs or lifting clips from video games and passing them off as actual combat footage may not impress world leaders. Nevertheless, it works wonders for the gullible masses in Pakistan who have been subtly conditioned to believe that any faceoff between India and Pakistan is essentially a Hindu versus Islam clash or ‘jihad’. And Field Marshal Munir’s recent rant highlighting the irreconcilable existential incompatibility between Hindus and Muslims validates this assertion.
Furthermore, during his May 11 press briefing on Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, DGISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif [who is reportedly the son of a UN designated global terrorist] openly admitted that “Jihad drives us; it is not merely part of our personal belief, but central to our institutional faith and training.” He went on to say that “We have an army chief who has a strong belief in it. The leadership and his belief and commitment translates into different operations.” It is left to the reader to decide whether these revelations were meant for the international community or the domestic audience?
It’s therefore amply clear that the sole target of Rawalpindi’s perception management efforts are the gullible people of Pakistan who have already been radicalised by the heady mix of intolerant religious beliefs and hyper-nationalism fed to them over the years. For Rawalpindi, this is what matters and so, this is exactly what it ensures.
Tailpiece: All pictures may not be worth a thousand words, but this thousand word piece it has inspired proves that the photograph presented by Field Marshal Munir to Shehbaz Sharif definitely is!
Email:--------------------------:nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com
Her dramatic attempt to use the image of a badly injured girl as proof of “Indian brutality” in Kashmir to draw attention of the international community backfired as her assertion was factually incorrect. It subsequently turned out that this photograph was clicked by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine and the subject was not a Kashmiri but a 17-year-old Palestinian girl injured during an Israeli attack in 2014.
From the photos of Saturday’s grand dinner hosted by Pakistan’s newly promoted Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir to “honour the political leadership, steadfast commitment of the armed forces, and the indomitable spirit of the people of Pakistan as demonstrated during Marka-e-Haq, Operation Bunyanum Marsoos” it appears that this formal event went off quite well.
Attended by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with several top political leaders and army Generals, this event followed Sharif’s announcement that May 10 would henceforth be observed annually as the Youm-e-Marka e Haq [Day for the Battle for Truth], which has unilaterally declared an unqualified military victory by Rawalpindi.
Field Marshal Munir’s idea to present Sharif with a framed photograph of a salvo of Pakistani rockets being fired during Operation Bunyanum Marsoos was also a face saver to make up for the complete absence of photographic evidence supporting Pakistan’s claims of having wreaked massive destruction on the Indian armed forces. Remember Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif citing “social media” as proof of his claim that five Indian Air Force fighters had been shot down?
Unfortunately, the photograph the Field Marshal publicly presented to the Prime Minister of Pakistan turned out to be the copy of a 2019 photograph attributed to Huang Hai featuring China’s PHL-03 multiple rocket launchers being fired during a PLA military exercise. Field Marshal Munir’s embarrassing faux pas not only credibly validates the old dictum that cameras don’t lie but photographs do, but also once again exposes Pakistan’s proclivity for brazenly peddling falsehood.
However, this isn’t the first time that Islamabad has plagiarised photographs to mislead the world. Readers would recall that in September 2017, Pakistan's then permanent representative to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi displayed a photograph showing the badly scarred face of a young girl whom she said was a Kashmiri injured due to pellet gun firing on protesters by Indian law enforcement agencies.
Her dramatic attempt to use the image of a badly injured girl as proof of “Indian brutality” in Kashmir to draw attention of the international community backfired as her assertion was factually incorrect. It subsequently turned out that this photograph was clicked by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine and the subject was not a Kashmiri but a 17-year-old Palestinian girl injured during an Israeli attack in 2014.
Regrettably, despite this massive embarrassment Islamabad failed to learn any lessons.
The very next year, Pakistan released a set of 20 stamps titled “Atrocities in Indian-Occupied Kashmir.” One of stamps in this series carries the image of a group of protesters with the words “Missing Persons” printed on it, conveying the impression that they were protesting against missing Kashmiris allegedly disappeared by security forces. However, just like the photograph flashed at the UN by Lodhi and the one that Field Marshal Munir presented to Sharif, the image used in this stamp too was plagiarised.
A fact-check revealed that the image on the stamp in question has been copied from a photograph credited to the Press Trust of India. It was clicked by Shirish Shete on January 19, 2014 during a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, by Roots in Kashmir, an ethnic Kashmiri Pandit group observing the 24th anniversary of the forced exodus of this community from Kashmir Valley by Pakistan sponsored Islamic terrorists.
Even during the latest Indo-Pak standoff, Islamabad shockingly tried to pass off video game footage as actual combat recording. Commenting on ‘X’, UK Defence Journal, an independent defence news and analysis website posted the footage lifted by Islamabad from a video game and mentioned that “the official account of the Government of Pakistan has posted footage from the video game ARMA 3, claiming it shows a real military response to alleged Indian aggression.”
Repeated use of such infantile ploys raises a question- does Islamabad really believe that it can fool the international community with such dim-witted assertions? The answer is a firm ‘No’; simply because Pakistan’s diplomatic corps as well as the army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] are definitely not a congregation of morons. But if both Islamabad and Rawalpindi know that their ‘fairy tales’ don’t impress the international community, why do they persist with the same?
It’s a well known fact that Pakistan’s disinformation programme is overseen by Rawalpindi and not Islamabad. Since Rawalpindi fiercely protects both its turf and extra-constitutional powers that it enjoys, the target audience for the army’s propaganda is not the international community but the very people of Pakistan. Though it may sound odd, a dispassionate analysis will definitely confirm this inference.
Daft attempts like unashamedly plagiarising photographs or lifting clips from video games and passing them off as actual combat footage may not impress world leaders. Nevertheless, it works wonders for the gullible masses in Pakistan who have been subtly conditioned to believe that any faceoff between India and Pakistan is essentially a Hindu versus Islam clash or ‘jihad’. And Field Marshal Munir’s recent rant highlighting the irreconcilable existential incompatibility between Hindus and Muslims validates this assertion.
Furthermore, during his May 11 press briefing on Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, DGISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif [who is reportedly the son of a UN designated global terrorist] openly admitted that “Jihad drives us; it is not merely part of our personal belief, but central to our institutional faith and training.” He went on to say that “We have an army chief who has a strong belief in it. The leadership and his belief and commitment translates into different operations.” It is left to the reader to decide whether these revelations were meant for the international community or the domestic audience?
It’s therefore amply clear that the sole target of Rawalpindi’s perception management efforts are the gullible people of Pakistan who have already been radicalised by the heady mix of intolerant religious beliefs and hyper-nationalism fed to them over the years. For Rawalpindi, this is what matters and so, this is exactly what it ensures.
Tailpiece: All pictures may not be worth a thousand words, but this thousand word piece it has inspired proves that the photograph presented by Field Marshal Munir to Shehbaz Sharif definitely is!
Email:--------------------------:nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com
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