The official Twitter account of Pakistan Defence was suspended on Saturday by the micro blogging website. A forum for news related to Pakistan’s armed forces was removed after posting a morphed image.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Defence account shared an image of a Delhi University activist. The activist is holding a placard which reads, “I am an Indian but I hate India, because India is a colonial entity that has occupied nations such as Nagas, Kashmiris, Manipuris, Hyderabad, Junagarh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa.”
But a Twitter handle pointed out the image was tampered with and inaccurate. In the original picture, the activist Kawalpreet Kaur’s placard reads, “I am a citizen of India and I stand with secular values of our Constitution. I will write against communal mob lynching of Muslims in our country #CitizensAgainstMobLynching.”
The image was later deleted from the Twitter account of Pakistan’s defence but the damage was already done. The account followed by almost 3,08,500 people was suspended by Twitter for breaking their strict policies. Even Pakistan Defence’s Facebook page was suspended on the same basis.
Other than running malicious campaigns against several Pakistani journalists/activists, defencepk was also morphing photos to further its propaganda: pic.twitter.com/qK7ZLQM29G
— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) 18 November 2017
The activist Kaur took to Twitter to thank the ones who flagged the tampered image.
The account of @defencepk has been suspended by twitter for posting my unverified & morphed pictures. Grateful to all who reported it in large numbers. The message of the picture shouldn’t be lost in these dark times. No nation wants lynchings & killings. Only bigots wants hate.
— Kawalpreet Kaur (@kawalpreetdu) 18 November 2017
This is not the first time, Pakistan Defence posted false information. Earlier on Saturday it claimed Indian denied the offer to meet Indian prisoner in Pakistan Kulbhushan Jadhav. But the truth is India accepted the generous offer and insisted to include Jadhav’s mother at the meeting.