Pakistan yet to recover from the scar of ‘Operation Sindoor’, peddles fake news about closed-door meeting with China, Iran and Russia to claim ‘diplomatic victory’
After being left battered by India during ‘Operation Sindoor’, social media handles based out of Pakistan have resorted to fake news to claim ‘diplomatic victory’ over India.
Rajnath Singh, the Union Minister of Defence, had travelled to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Qingdao, which took place from 25th to 27th June and was also attended by other countries including Russia, Iran and Pakistan.
The visit coincided with India and China’s efforts to mend fences, which include resuming travel and commerce connections as well as conversation channels.
Meanwhile, social media accounts especially from the terror state began to promote false news regarding a confidential National Security Advisor (NSA)-level meeting between China, Iran, Russia and Pakistan under the SCO framework, alleging that India was not invited for the same and portrayed it as a diplomatic victory for Islamabad.
An account even labelled the development as a “major shift in strategic alignments.”
Nevertheless, the propaganda was quickly debunked as the information was revealed to be false. According to D-Intent Data no reliable source reported any such meetings between the four nations at the summit.
On the other hand, Rajnath Singh adopted a firm stance and declined to endorse the joint statement during the CSO meeting held on 26th June. The document did not mention Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent tourists, mostly Hindus, were killed. The document also did not reflect India’s strong position on terror.
Meanwhile, the document mentioned Balochistan unrest, at the behest of Pakistan. Addressing the summit, Rajnath Singh called upon SCO members to unite to eliminate terrorism for collective safety and security. Even after that, the organisation chose to skip Pahalgam terror attack in its statement.
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