Pak role in Nuh flare-up

AS the Nuh riots raged, keyboard warriors from neighbouring Pakistan jumped in to play a key role, according to the Haryana Police. Social media groups operating from the neighbouring country, and having thousands of followers from Rajasthan and Mewat region of Haryana, instigated mobs to ‘give it their all’ in the clashes. Even as violence-hit people tried to pick up the pieces, these groups flooded the Internet with celebratory messages, unmindful of the crackdown that will likely ruin many local families whose young members have been arrested.

The presence of the Pakistani hand is not a surprise since social media is now an important tool to spread hate beyond borders. The Nuh provocation was aimed at igniting a deadly conflagration. The ISI, which continues to send armed men across the border into India, has been tapping the potential of social media to hound its opponents; its fingerprints were spotted in the 2021 agitation by the Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) against then PM Imran Khan, who had turned against the Generals.

While Kashmir has remained a perennial target, the ISI has colluded with the TLP to stir anti-India sentiment in the Maldives, where the fallout was witnessed last year when a mob disrupted the Indian High Commission’s Yoga Day event in Male. The ISI has persisted with its mollycoddling of terrorists to achieve foreign policy goals in Afghanistan and India. The latest blowback was the blast in Bajaur that killed over 60 people. Social media is even more unmanageable than the Hafiz Saeeds and Azhar Masoods. The same groups can fan the flames of hatred in Pakistan too, if they are not doing so already. And while these nefarious activities are on, the olive branch being extended by Pakistan to India reeks of insincerity.