Pakistan is making repeated attempts to make their diplomatic stand strong by circulating fake news.
Recently, India security establishments were grappling with fake news and Pakistani propaganda on media outlets, especially social media, after Pakistan released IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistani Army following an aerial dogfight on February 27.
Barely hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his government would release the fighter pilot, several impostors created Twitter handles claiming to be Varthaman. One called @IAFAbhinandan had 13 tweets with over 300 followers. The agencies are probing the phoney accounts.
Before the pilot's release, a two-minute video showing a man who looks like Varthaman dancing with Pakistan military went viral. First shared by Facebook page 'Lazawal', the post read, "Pilot Varthaman dancing with Pak army and PAF in Pakistan."
Also, another fiction shared by a Twitter account called Yuva Desh is a clip showing a woman portrayed as Varthaman's wife. But she is not.
In another instance of disinformation, after Varthaman was taken into custody by the Pakistani army, some Pakistani media outlets falsely claimed that Western Command Air Marshal Chandrashekharan Hari Kumar had been sacked for the pilot's capture. The Indian Air Force clarified that the Air Marshal had duly retired after an illustrious career spanning more than 39 years.
Strangely, Pakistan also floated that Lockheed Martin filing a lawsuit against India for "claiming that the MiG-21 Bison of the Indian Air Force had shot down one of its planes. the F16". Lockheed Martin rubbished the report and tweeted that the claim, shared by a Pakistani official called Danyal Gilani, was fake. "Lockheed Martin has made no such comments," the company said via its Twitter handle.