The tragic Pehalgam incident in the hill station of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) once again raised the political temperature between New Delhi and Islamabad while severely damaging their brief diplomatic interaction. The incident claiming the injuries of around 26 people at the hotspot tourist area under led the New Delhi-based security establishment to turn its disinformation cannon against Pakistan.

The Indian leadership translated the tragic incident as an act of aggression with alleged Pakistani involvement without substantially rationalising their claims

The Indian leadership translated the tragic incident as an act of aggression with alleged Pakistani involvement without substantially rationalising their claims. The lack of convincing and logical explanations in Indian assertion shows Modi government’s wider plans for targeting Pakistan in its regional debates of terrorism. It further vividly exhibits Indian government’s anti-Pakistani agenda and its worldwide promotion grounded in fabricated arguments. This agenda has several times tried to undermine Pakistan’s frontline role in the global counterterror efforts which were acknowledged and simultaneously appreciated by the entire world.

New Delhi’s opposition to Pakistan’s terror-combating commitments has a complex history of targeting Islamabad’s soft power projection in the regional and global politics. New Delhi’s multi-layered strategy for degrading Pakistan’s diplomatic connections, political communications, and trading collaborations with the outside world greatly relay on certain false-flag operations. These operations always tried to convince the international community on Indian anti-Pakistan narrative without estimating its impacts on the regional nuclearized politics. In this regard, the arrival of Modi’s ultra nationalist ideology in Indian mainstream politics cannot be ignored which has multiplied New Delhi’s Pakistan-specific disinformation worldwide operations. It is pertinent to mention here, the recent four-day visit of United States Vice President JD Vance, to India to widen the existing cooperative bilateralism between New Delhi and Washington.

Modi government’s attempt of showing India a prime victim of regional wave of transnational terrorism seeks to cultivate the sympathy of Washington and its global allies

Modi government’s attempt of showing India a prime victim of regional wave of transnational terrorism seeks to cultivate the sympathy of Washington and its global allies which could provide New Delhi considerable support in the South Asian regional politics parallel to facilitating it in gaining the aspired backing of international community against its nuclear neighbour. It recalled the post-nuclear India-Pakistan crisis and Clinton’s historical visit to South Asia when the two-sided governments experienced an analogous scenario.

An analytical survey of New Delhi-Washington multi-layered collaborations suggests that the Indian government under different political administrations always endeavoured to stigmatize Islamabad’s position in its broader bilateral cooperation with the US. Moreover, the role of Indian media channels and their specific political commentators constantly remained vocal in heightening tensions between the two states corresponding to denounce the proven presence of New Delhi’s worldwide disinformation operations. Such operations have been revealed by an internationally renowned European Union Disinfo Lab in 2020. The published report of Disinfo Lab exposed countless disinformation news sources supported by Modi government which were primarily designed to serve wider Indian interests mainly related to IIOJK.

New Delhi’s conventional patterns of shifting blame to Pakistan without adequate investigations indicates the Modi government’s efforts to divert attention from its domestic anti-Muslim legislations where the Waqf bill 

Thus, the launching of massive systematic disinformation operations try to internationally spread misperceptions about Kashmiri demands of securing freedom from Indian occupational forces which have caused massive human rights abuse. In this way, the contesting claims of associating the Pehalgam incident with Pakistan originating from New Delhi’s formal media channels has refreshed the memories of India’s belligerent approach on managing regional issues especially related to the disputed Kashmiri areas. In addition to demonizing the voices of Kashmiri rights to self-determination and securing freedom from Indian massive force deployment, New Delhi’s conventional patterns of shifting blame to Pakistan without adequate investigations indicates the Modi government’s efforts to divert attention from its domestic anti-Muslim legislations where the Waqf bill has sparked a countrywide wave of protests and agitations.

Furthermore, Indian swift response in shifting incident’s responsibility to Pakistan is an inseparable part of Modi’s confrontational plans for continuing regional blame game with Pakistan to disengage it from its formal efforts of overcoming indigenous economic problems with the support of increasing trade with other nations in which Pakistan’s signed mega corridor project with China is the principal example.

In this way, it is appropriate to maintain that blaming Pakistan on the Pehalgam incident is the manifestation of Modi’s ultra nationalist ideology rooted in its extremist religious thoughts. The occurrence of such issues validates the opposition of local Kashmiri population living under heavy militarization parallel to facing New Delhi’s massive force deployment to curb the Kashmiri voices for securing the right to self-determination. Based on this scenario, the New Delhi-based strategic community is required to adopt a pragmatic approach to understand the ground realities of Kashmiri disputed territory where the Pehalgam incident symbolizes the indigenous resistance against Indian occupation.

The prevalence of overwhelming resistance in IIOJK needs serious attention of Modi government

The prevalence of overwhelming resistance in IIOJK needs serious attention of Modi government. It would help New Delhi to alter its traditional conflict management mechanism consisting of unilateral accusations and chanting of escalation slogans. The required alterations would let Indian leadership to concentrate the grievances of Kashmiri local population instead of merely considering it a regional security issue. Apart from purely relaying on the use of military force and blame game, the solution to such problems lies in the diplomatic communication and political dialogues to strengthen the regional vision of peace and stability.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.