Pakistan’s post-Op Sindoor frenzy and the global myopia – Firstpost

Post-Pahalgam, grey-zone warfare has been on full display, as Islamabad and Rawalpindi peddled fake narratives and carefully crafted a facade of innocence—attempting to mislead the world, especially the gullible Western audience—in the wake of heinous terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent tourists in Jammu and Kashmir by the Pakistan-based terrorist group, ‘The Resistance Front (TRF),’ an offshoot of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Their staunch allies—China, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, among others—not only knowingly accepted these narratives but also actively helped legitimise and spread Pakistan’s disinformation campaign, while fully backing Islamabad on the ground.

Prominent Western media outlets, which have mostly been preferential in their approaches against India under the influence of lobbyists and the fact that India is a big independent power, lapped up the Pakistani narratives without fact-checking or the history of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as a global sponsor of terrorism. Islamabad and its Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)—the military arm of disinformation—have learnt a great deal from their Chinese benefactors, who are masters in the art of lying, as the China-Pakistan axis plays this match in concert.

As India embarked on a diplomatic offensive by sending several teams of cross-party Parliamentarians to important capitals to explain India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, which was a response to terror attacks and was against terrorists and their sponsors, Islamabad also embarked on a close chase of Indian footprints to counter the Indian stance through fabricated and feeble arguments, completely obfuscating the terrorism angle.

But then geopolitics loves these slinging matches as the global majors try to play referee. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his colleagues have been meeting mostly with the Islamic world leaders, trying to garner their sympathy. The same Pakistanis tried at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Jakarta, which was deflected by the Indonesians and Bahrainis, among others. But then some of their friends, like Turkey and Azerbaijan, threw their hats in the ring along with Rawalpindi. Further, the out-of-protocol visit by the so-called Field Marshal Asim Munir to meet and have lunch with President Donald Trump at the White House aced their effort.

Apart from these bilateral outreaches, what is noticeable is their onslaught at the plurilateral groupings. One significant move has been a meeting in South Asia between China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and a proposed attempt to create an alternate grouping to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) while keeping India out. They are looking to include even Myanmar. China has been very keen to join the Saarc in some ways, but that has stayed dormant due to Indian indifference. As such, Saarc’s energy has been exhausted in dealing with India-Pakistan contestation.

India in the interim tried to create sub-regional groupings like Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec), which might also come under stress given the anti-India posturing by the current Bangladesh regime. India will have to be watchful of these developments and create innovative ways to keep the flock together. This will be a test for our Neighbourhood First and Act East policies, whose contours will have to be redefined.

Yet another platform that Pakistan used, apart from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), to justify it being a victim of Indian diplomatic and military aggression—completely denying the causal connection with terrorism—is the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), whose 17th Summit was held in Khan Kendi, Azerbaijan, recently. It was set up in 1985 (the same year that Saarc was established) in Tehran by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Over time its membership in the Eurasian context increased to ten members, including Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In its earlier avatar, it was known as the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD), established in 1964, and later mutated into ECO. The ECO aims to enhance trade and investment opportunities, improve regional connectivity, and foster sustainable development among its members. Composed of some Caucasus, South, West, and Central Asian countries, ECO is one of the oldest intergovernmental organisations and provides Turkey especially a robust outreach tool with a Turkic identity.

It was a perfect and pliable platform for complicity for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to vent out his tirade, spewing the same venom, accusing India, and trying to prove his innocence while comparing Gaza, Iran, and Kashmir in the same vein. This is in stark contrast to their own multiple admissions of being the haven and factories of mercenaries and terrorists. On display was the fine bonhomie between Ilham Aliyev, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Sharif, blindly supporting each other through thick and thin. Sharif cried himself hoarse while thanking his ECO partner for their support in the wake of what he described as Indian aggression, stating, “The unprovoked and reckless Indian hostility directed towards Pakistan after an unfortunate incident in Jammu and Kashmir was yet another attempt to destabilise regional peace.” Lies have no legs and no limits, even as they may have some entertainment value, but in serious issues and global challenges like terrorism, this tends to compound and bolster the courage of the perpetrators and immunity to terror groups and their benefactors.

In fact, in the run-up to and during Operation Sindoor, several Pakistani leaders exposed themselves and their deep state by accepting to have been complicit and a crucible for creating and sustaining various terror groups, including the Taliban and shades of Al Qaeda. Defence Minister Khwaja Asif admitted on Sky News that Pakistanis have been doing the dirty work for the West for about three decades. Only recently, their former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto exhorted, ‘I don’t think that it’s a secret that Pakistan has a past as far as extremist groups are concerned.’ It has been part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list several times and could be on the verge of being listed again.

And this is something the myopic world refuses to acknowledge and take action against until they become the victims themselves, displaying their hypocrisy and double standards. Hence, India will have to continue on the ‘Ekla Chalo Re’ path, which is well enshrined in its ‘New Normal’ policy in the context of zero tolerance to terrorism and the dynamic of ‘Op Sindoor’.

The author is the former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta and is currently a Distinguished Fellow with Vivekananda International Foundation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.