Twitter, Facebook suspend Pakistan defence forum’s account
NEWDELHI: The Twitter account and Facebook page of Pakistan Defence Forum, devoted to Pakistan’s armed forces, were suspended after it posted fake news involving Kulbhushan Jadhav and a morphed image of a Delhi University activist.
Over the years, Pakistan Defence Forum, which describes itself as “a one stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs” and is better known by its website url of “defence.pk”, has been repeatedly accused of putting out anti-India propaganda.
Though retired and serving Pakistani military personnel are among the forum’s members, it is not an official website of the armed forces.
Searches for the forum’s Twitter handle, which was verified, and Facebook page turned up messages that they had both been suspended.
On Saturday, numerous Indian Twitter users complained about Pakistan Defence Forum’s Twitter handle when it posted a doctored image of Kawalpreet Kaur, a student activist of Delhi University that purported to show her standing in front of Delhi’s Jama Masjid with a poster that read: “I am an Indian but I hate India…”
The poster used by Kaur in an image that she had herself posted on Twitter on June 27 this year had read: “I am a citizen of India and I stand with secular values of our Constitution.” At the time, Kaur had said she was asking Indians to change their profile images to “protest mob lynching”.