‘Drone Strike’ Story Collapses – OpEd
The recent social-media frenzy as a supposed drone attack had been launched in Khyber District can be considered a now prototypical demonstration of how fake news may be employed to deceive individuals, in a world where fake news travels at a quicker pace than real news can.
The first posts done online were instantly refuted by a firestorm of accounts of Afghan-based propagandists who were attempting to make it sound like something had some credibility by repeating it rather than creating some new facts. But, in the background of the digital noise some one thing is made very plenteous; that no proven activity of any drone activity or strike has occurred in the Khyber region. The rumor quailed before it was born, and even more on the plans of the man who is circulating the rumor than on anything that really took place ascription to the Pakistani soil.
The first and the most crucial indicator of the truth could be defined by the security and communication institutions of Pakistan. The government agency that formally issues a government pronouncement about military action and incidents is the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) which has not given any declaration on accepting anything. The rumors have also been denied by the suspected local sources, journalists, district officials, and ground-level observers, over the social media. No credible accounts by the witnesses, no photographs or videos can be used to substantiate the allegation despite the fact that genuine cases of drone operations in any corner of the globe are normally supported with undisputable pieces of evidence. It is completely unrecorded, which serves as a good sign to show that the so-called strike is not just unconfirmed, but fabricated.
To understand why such a narrative could be created, we need to go to the larger geopolitical scope. The rumor campaign was launched at a time when Pakistan has been mounting diplomatic pressure, as well as security pressure, on the Interim Afghan Government (IAG) because of its inability to wipe out Taliban Pakistan sanctuaries in Pakistan in the long term. The Afghan General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) appears to be more of a distraction than handling such reported safe havens which various international intelligence organizations have confirmed that they actually exist. Attempting to hoard the news of so-called ISKP activity in Pakistan, including, the hoax of drones, the Afghan propagandists are attempting to distract attention to the fact that they cannot or, in any case, will not be able to stop TTP members acting on the other side of the border in the open.
However, these arguments are contrary to all serious assessments of counterterrorism globally. The reports made by the United Nations monitoring team and the security report made by the European Union have confirmed that the leadership and core of the ISKP and its infrastructure and operations have always been based in Afghanistan and not in Pakistan, as has always been the argument by some of the top international intelligence agencies. None of all these report ISKP hideouts within the territory of Pakistan. With such hideouts, it would have been reflected in UN Sanctions Committee reports, which is a composite of multi-state intelligence input and screening of the terrorist networks in the region. The fact that not a single such mention exists underscores the degree to which the political discourse of divorced Afghan GDI is not in line with the widely-held international opinion.
It is also pertinent to the fact on the ground in Pakistan. The national security machinery is in high alert, rapid reaction and one of non-tolerance against terrorism stance in all of the sensitive districts of the country and to the larger part in the border with Afghanistan. These have been emphasized a number of times in the briefing of ISPR and observed countless kinetic operations. Did it contain any actual terrorist focal point it would have prompted an actual break and action that can be actually checked by a state. What the social-media rumor delivered in its stead comprised were vague statements, absence of images, absence of substantiation in the ground and absence of evidence, the very pointers of disinformation, as compared to a real security incident.
In the meantime, the international bodies also continue mapping the ISKP development in Afghanistan as opposed to Pakistan. The UN and EU assessments have often pointed at the loose security situation on the other side of the border whereby, due to fragmented authorities, uncontrolled spaces and civil politics, ISKP have been able to reorganize their operations and diversify. This is an official fact that defies all the attempts of the Afghan social-media networks to pursue the ISKP actions to Pakistan. What these actors are attempting to do is to shift the blame on others rather than to face their issues in the hope that they will not be blamed in respect to the deteriorating security trends in Afghanistan.
It is not a random date when the fake drone news occurs. As Pakistan intensifies the diplomatic pressure on Kabul to go after TTP havens, the Afghan information sector is releasing the distractor coverage to warp the regional security perceptions. It is not an initial endeavor of this kind. As soon as Pakistan raises valid issues of cross-border terrorism, the Internet Kerry whack mass of disinformation, and the conspiracy of ISKP serving Pakistan, false news about security operations or exaggerated accidents that do not stand the test of scrutiny. The message is clear; to dilute the message of Pakistani and obscure the collapse of Afghanistan to hold off groupings that would result in instability in the area.
Fact cannot be dominated by misinformation though. The counterterrorist stance of Pakistan remains the same and the intelligence allies both domestic and foreign confirm that this nation is not a refuge of the ISKP and the center of any such drone assault. The unravelling of the story concerning Khyber drone-strike, is not merely the debunking of a rumor but also a lesson concerning the necessity of media literacy, responsible verification and combating the manipulation regarding the matters of national security. The fake news tends to thrive on an emotional appeal and rapid spreading; it has fallen to the foolishness of critical thinking and articulation of facts.
Like what you read?
Please consider supporting Eurasia Review. Thank you for your consideration!
