In a war of perception, disinformation strikes deep

The ceasefire is unlikely to end Pakistan’s information warfare, built on lies and designed for virality

Even as India and Pakistan step back from the brink with a ceasefire agreement, the battlefield has moved far beyond the Line of Control. Today, the war is also being waged in the realm of perception – through tweets, doctored videos, propaganda, and blatant lies. Pakistan's disinformation campaign was not just opportunistic; it was tactical. It aimed to destabilise Indian morale, confuse global audiences, and build a false narrative of victimhood – all while buying diplomatic space and time.

What unfolded online during the escalation is part of a broader Pakistani playbook, one that has evolved over decades but now leverages the speed and reach of the digital age. This is not new, but the intensity and precision of the campaign deserve closer scrutiny. In the early hours after the first cross-border attacks, Pakistani social media accounts began circulating claims about military successes accompanied by outdated visuals from past skirmishes or unrelated conflicts. One viral tweet claimed an Indian drone had been brought down over Pakistani airspace, attaching footage sourced from a Turkish drone strike in Syria.

Just hours later, videos purportedly showing bombed Indian villages began circulating on Pakistani Telegram channels – later found to be clips from natural disaster coverage in Nepal and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, real images of Indian retaliation were drowned out by a fog of disinformation, diluting the clarity of India’s position.

Pakistan’s most provocative claim was perhaps the most dangerous – that India had fired missiles in Amritsar. Not only was this entirely baseless, but it appeared designed to incite communal tensions within India. The intention was clear: sow discord, raise domestic pressure on the Indian government, and fracture civilian unity at a time of external threat.

At the centre of this campaign was Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), which continues to play an outsized role in shaping war narratives. While Pakistan denied its involvement in the Pahalgam attack which triggered India’s response, it simultaneously pushed out claims that Indian drones that had breached its airspace had injured civilians. These statements were crafted to serve two purposes: to present Pakistan as the aggrieved party and to gain international sympathy.

This dual strategy – deny aggression, amplify victimhood – is a classic ISPR formula. In 2019, when Indian jets crossed into Balakot after the Pulwama attack, Pakistan employed a similar playbook: it invited international media and defence attachés to visit the site of the Indian air strike – an Islamic school in Balakot – in an orchestrated attempt to downplay the strike’s impact. Although the Indian Army had targeted militant and terror infrastructures at that site, Pakistan showcased an intact structure and denied it had ever been used as a terror camp. Notably, this tightly controlled visit was staged just before the general elections in India, reinforcing the view that Pakistan’s aim was to manipulate global perception. That episode now reads like a blueprint for the current effort to manage international optics.

A striking element of this campaign was how directly it aimed to target the Indian domestic morale. As noted by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Pakistani spokespersons even expressed delight at the idea that Indian civilians would question their own government. In a democracy like India’s, criticism is a norm, but Pakistan sought to weaponise that norm by injecting falsehoods into the public discourse.

Lessons from China

The goal here is not just to deceive the public. It is to weaken domestic morale, sow distrust in Indian institutions, and provoke anxiety among civilians who are already bracing for escalation. It wasn’t merely an external propaganda effort – it was a psychological operation targeting India’s citizenry.

This disinformation campaign is not a wartime aberration – it is a continuation of strategy. Pakistan has long deployed false narratives around Kashmir, ranging from inflated human rights violations to fabricated videos of unrest. In many cases, visuals from Palestine, Myanmar, or even Bollywood films and video games have been used to construct these narratives.

What’s different now is the digital infrastructure – the army of accounts, social media influencers, and content farms that can flood the internet with coordinated messaging. The architecture for this was built over years and recent reports suggest that Pakistani information warfare units have received support and inspiration from a more experienced propaganda actor – China.

China’s role here is subtle but relevant. Over the past few years, China has sought deeper control over media narratives in Pakistan, not just to protect its investments but to shape broader regional perception. While Pakistan’s disinformation campaign is home-grown, it draws heavily from China’s model of centralised narrative engineering and controlled chaos.

Disinformation is not just noise – it is a weapon. In a region as fragile as South Asia, where miscalculation can spiral quickly, perception management becomes central to crisis management. Pakistan’s disinformation campaign during the current conflict is more than an irritant – it is a state-sponsored effort to shape outcomes off the battlefield. It builds on a legacy of misinformation, now supercharged by digital tools and tactical desperation. Recognising this for what it is – a war of perception – is the first step in ensuring that truth doesn’t become its first casualty. The ceasefire may signal a pause in kinetic hostilities, but Pakistan’s information warfare – seeded with lies, shaped for virality and targeted at Indian fault lines – is unlikely to stop. Vigilance, therefore, must remain not only along the borders but across our screens and in our minds.

(The writer is a research analyst at Chintan Research Foundation)