Moulding Perceptions to Incite Violence

By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch

24 Jul , 2016

Information operations are complex requiring detailed planning and execution. In the overall context, information operations must include psychological operations, computer network operations, electronic warfare and military deception, the US military even adding operations security in the integrated mix of information operations.

It should be abundantly clear that friendly relations with Pakistan are a pipe dream unless Pakistan implodes or is balkanized and cut to size.

Looking at the larger picture, information operations are just one part of ‘hybrid warfare’ that we have been contending with. But here we examine how perception management is being executed by Pakistan to incite violence in India, particularly in J&K.

The fact remains that the basis of Pakistan’s survival has been the two-nation theory that founded Pakistan. Sure, Pakistan’s sense of direction went more awry after losing East Pakistan and West Pakistan lost the prefix ‘West’, and perhaps more regions of Pakistan may be lost same way, but the fact remains that Pakistan has been in illegal occupation of 678,114 sq kms of India (State of J&K that legally ceded to India), of which 5,180 sq kms of Shaksgam Valley Pakistan ceded to China in 1963 in exchange for nuclear technology and military aid. Yet Pakistan, eyes more and more, egged on by full support of China.

Pakistan recently observed ‘Black Day’ on July 19 while Nawaz Sharif declared, “Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support for Kashmiris in their just struggle”. It should be abundantly clear that friendly relations with Pakistan are a pipe dream unless Pakistan implodes or is balkanized and cut to size. What else would you deduce from the recent statement at a public rally in Muzaffrabad, where he said, “We are waiting for the day Kashmir becomes (part of) Pakistan. Their movement for freedom cannot be stopped and it will be successful. You are aware of how they are being beaten and killed. All our prayers are with them and we are waiting for the day Kashmir becomes (part of) Pakistan”.

All this, despite Prime Minister Modi going out of his way to befriend Pakistan, particularly Nawaz Sharif. Ignoring it as ‘just a political statement’ would be foolish. It is part of the perception management by Pakistan that it is the military, not polity that supports terror – ambiguity created by design. The fact is both support terrorism because the recruitment and support base are common to both. Imran Khan’s call for military takeover simply aims to score higher in the game of upmanship.

Wahabi radicalism replacing the all important and famous Sufi culture of the Kashmir Valley did not change overnight. The training, financing, arming of youth in Pakistan, the clergy at home was used to propagate anti-India sermons…

The above statements of Nawaz Sharif apart, there is no two views that Pakistan has decided to up the ante full throttle in J&K. The statement of Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Parliament has implicated Pakistan without doubt. But it generally is ignored that while killing of terrorist Burhan Wani was just a trigger used to incite violence, the portends that perceptions were being moulded in J&K past years.

Wahabi radicalism replacing the all important and famous Sufi culture of the Kashmir Valley did not change overnight. The training, financing, arming of youth in Pakistan, the clergy at home was used to propagate anti-India sermons including through blaring loudspeakers atop mosques. The Hurriyat separatists soft peddled by India are being gainfully optimized by Pakistan. There is uproar about temporary media blackout in J&K while the Pakistani military has already butchered over 60,000 Balochis, killed scores of journalists and there is total news blackout in Balochistan.

The ISI has successfully utilized news and social media to incite violence. Fancy the two photographs below. The left one (posted by a Pakistani) shows a withered old man who perhaps can’t read the placard he holds. The placard is supposedly by the Akali protest is supposedly by the Youth Akali Dal, Amritsar. The photo probably shot in Pakistan could not find a ‘youth’ to hold the placard. The photograph on the right is of a boy hit in the eyes by pellets in an incident in Gaza during 2015.

However, this photograph is being freely used to depict it happened during recent violence in J&K not only by militants but even by a notorious woman journalist who has been engaged in such falsehood past few years. The irony is in India is that journos in India with ISI connections can freely indulge in acts inimical to our national interest under the banner of ‘free expression’. Fancy how other countries including China, Pakistan and Israel deal with those inciting violence through media, including social media. 

Pakistan’s propaganda and psychological operations are facilitated by some of our activists, scholars and educated ignorant as well.

ISI knows very well that violence can be incited from within India without much ado. Remember the fakes on social media about houses burned, properties looted, killing and rapes in northeast few years back that resulted in youth working in Bengaluru and Delhi rushing back to their homes. Sure it was handiwork of Pakistan but the posts were generated from within India. So you find plenty hullabaloo about pellet gun injuries and photos of victims of pellets (some genuine, some fake) but little coverage and photos of the hundreds of police personnel injured by stone-pelters, some with severe head injuries.

Pakistan’s propaganda and psychological operations are facilitated by some of our activists, scholars and educated ignorant as well. One woman activist propagates Kashmir should be demilitarized, without realizing Kashmir is not the Valley alone and without realizing what the implications of demilitarizing the Valley (her Kashmir) are.

Another journo-scholar writes about the ‘grand bargain’ under which J&K acceded to India. Obviously, he hasn’t read the instrument of accession under which J&K became part of India – where there was no bargain, leave aside any grand bargain. In saying so, he quotes ex home minister, even as the political party of the latter has disassociated themselves from his comment.

Incidentally, this ex home minister told a TV channel that the Army is using larger pellets in their pellet guns. This shows that either he is saying so to facilitate ISI’s campaign to discredit the India Army or is clueless of the fact that Indian Army doesn’t use pellet guns.

…in the last 10 days, it is only one or two Hindi TV channels that exposed Pakistan’s ongoing genocide in Balochistan. It is fashionable in India to say that the Army should take the lead in building perceptions in the Valley.

Asking whether we have an integrated information operations strategy is naïve in a situation where we do not even have an integrated national security strategy. But here the question is that do we have a perception management strategy of the youth in J&K and a policy for those who in the country are deliberating indulging in acts that incite violence, particularly in youth. Do we have a counter strategy either to the campaign mounted by the ISI?

It is unfortunate to note that in the last 10 days, it is only one or two Hindi TV channels that exposed Pakistan’s ongoing genocide in Balochistan. It is fashionable in India to say that the Army should take the lead in building perceptions in the Valley.

In early 2008, while the National Informatics Centre was suffering cyber attacks every week, the Director was of the view that the lead in cyber warfare must be taken by the military in India. Today, the US Military and the PLA lead respective cyber warfare programs in the US and China, while in India the military remains sidelined. But the bottom-line is that if we don’t want the ISI to succeed in inciting violence and destabilize India, a concerted plan will need to be worked out by the government (MEA, MoD, MHA, MoI&B), intelligence agencies and security forces.

Just asking the security forces to go soft, is not going to be enough. How complex the issue is can be gauged from the fact that China fakes some 488 million social media posts annually to mould perceptions, employing her ‘Fifty Cent Party’ (paying 50 cents for each post) that avoids engaging in debates with critics but mostly works to distract public attention away from hot topics by highlighting the positive, cheering the state, symbols of the regime, or the Communist Party.

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