Indian Chronicles is just the tip of the iceberg. Pakistan has irrefutable evidence of RAW and the Indianstate’simplicit involvement in spreading disinformation campaign against Pakistan. This has been a full-fledged attack on Pakistan short of war.

The Keynote Speaker, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security and Strategic

Policy Planning, Dr Moeed Yusufsaid that Pakistan is a country squarely focused on the economic security paradigm. In contrast, India was pursuing Hindutva ideology with an expansionist agenda, and had a conflict with every single neighbor, and had broken all international law obligations – the classic example of a rogue state.

Listing down the challenges of the disinformation campaign, he maintained that India has been ahead of Pakistan in the game of perceptions and narrative building which had been bought by the US and the Western world:“With the help of this narrative, they always get away with their malicious activities against Pakistan, including terrorism.” He stressed that the malicious campaign against Pakistan had been going on even before the latest revelations of “Indian Chronicles” which was just the tip of the iceberg.

Although the DisinfoLab report did not categorically implicate the Indian state, Dr Yusuf shared that Pakistan has irrefutable evidence of RAW and Indian government’s involvement. He further added that India’s activities were not just unethical, they were crimes under the law from identity theft to defamation, and the perpetrators were liable for prosecution under multiple jurisdictions.

Talking about Islamabad’s response, he informed that Pakistan had written to the EU Parliament and investigations were already underway. He said that this was a failure of the UN system that allowed such fake NGOs to function, and questionedwhether a country, like India should even be sitting on the UN Security Council. “This has been a full-fledged attack on Pakistan short of war,” he remarked.Dr Yusuf further added that the dossier presented by Pakistan established clear links regarding India’s involvement in terror financing and using this disinformation campaign to cover that.

India must stop its subversive activities against Pakistan and resolve the Kashmir issue under the international law to bring peace in the region as there was no scope for peace under the current circumstances. He criticized India’s kneejerk responses to Pakistan and stated that Pakistan would continue to take down Indian lies pragmatically and unapologetically and act as a responsible state.

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Other speakers in the webinar included Mr Ejaz Haider, Executive Editor Indus TV, MsRamsha Jahangir, a journalistand research scholar and MrOves Anwar, Director at the Research Society of International Law.

According to MrEjaz Haider, the nature of warfare had not changed, its means had. It had now become a sum-total of kinetic and non-kinetic actions that can be taken to target an adversary’s socio-political, cultural, economic and military spheres. Disinformation, espionage, psychological warfare is not a new phenomenon. The KGB is utilized such means, so did the CIA. States use misinformation as a policy tool domestically and globally, and Pakistan should also be prepared for this.

MrOvesAnwarurged that Pakistan needs to be at the forefront of developing and shaping the narrative against fake news and disinformation campaigns and also look at the dangerous role the media has played in this area in India, while MsRamsha Jahangir recommended that it is also important to conduct evidence-based research to take this forward, especially from Pakistan in terms of how disinformation is defined and its long-term and deep repercussions.The webinar was moderated by Ms Sitara Noor, Senior Researcher at CASS.