The night India wiped Pakistan off the map in the newsroom!

Express Tribune

10-05-2025

Between the night of May 6 and 7, India believed it had nearly pulled it off — if only for a moment. After more than two weeks of drumming up war hysteria through its media, New Delhi was primed to deliver a dose of catharsis to its public over Pahalgam.
With a title straight out of Bollywood, India launched 'Operation Sindoor' and fired missiles at multiple cities in Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. At least 31 civilians were martyred and many more injured.
Something about those back-to-back confirmations seemed to snap something in the psyche of the Modi government and its media minions. The past two weeks have already marked the most heightened tensions between the two nations in decades. But what unfolded last night crossed the border into the comically surreal.
It began as innocuously as anything can in an atmosphere thick with information warfare. Following a news briefing by DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif — in which he stated that Pakistan had successfully shot down dozens of Israeli-made drones launched by India over multiple cities — several Indian social media accounts began circulating a deepfake video of him 'admitting' the loss of two Pakistan Air Force JF-17 fighter jets to Indian air defences.
But while dubious handles peddling misinformation have long been a hallmark of cross-border conflict in the digital age, at least one Indian TV channel took it a step further and framed the doctored footage as an authentic statement from Pakistan chief military spokesperson.
Building on that prelude, Indian media launched another salvo, claiming that Indian air defences had shot down a Pakistani F-16 over Indian airspace and captured its pilot. Blue-ticked Indian media personalities hyped up "exclusives" that never materialized, while fringe accounts with little credibility circulated a hazy, underexposed image they swore showed the 'pilot' in custody.
As both claims unravelled in the absence of evidence, reports emerged that India had imposed an Internet blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir, along with a sweeping ban on social media accounts seen as puncturing its narrative. The platform X announced India had ordered it to block over 8,000 accounts — orders it said it was reluctantly complying with, describing them as government-imposed "censorship." Meanwhile, India's defence ministry issued an advisory instructing media outlets and social media users to refrain from broadcasting live coverage of defence operations or the movement of security forces. Unconfirmed reports also suggested that Indian officials were directed to avoid interacting with Western media.
With the echo chamber firmly sealed, Indian news channels went into overdrive with their Hindutva fantasies about Pakistan.
Anchors and panellists on Times Now, in full nationalist ecstasy, declared that the Indian Army had stormed across the border and captured Lahore. Major Gaurav Arya - channeling the energy of a game show host rather than a defence analyst — pleaded on air for the Indian Navy to "jump into the fray."
If the Navy missed Gaurav's memo, Zee News certainly didn't. Its anchor breathlessly claimed that the Indian Navy had destroyed Karachi Port with "over ten blasts," announcing "nothing was left" in Pakistan. "Reports are coming in — there is a big explosion in Peshawar," a panellist chimed in, as they painted a surreal picture of Pakistan being dismantled, city by city, under relentless Indian firepower. "Their soldiers are deserting one by one — their generals are fleeing the country," another added.
Aaj Tak, as if trying to outdo Zee News, raised the stakes even further. Multiple blasts had reduced all of Peshawar to dust, the anchor declared. "Terror-filled news is coming in from different cities of Pakistan," she added, her voice rising over a background score of war sirens - as though she were narrating the trailer for an epic war movie, not presenting a news bulletin.
TV9 Bharatvarsh decided to go one better. "Please add Quetta Quetta to this!" exclaimed one anchor, sounding more like he was issuing a frantic plea than reading the news. "In the area that is Quetta, the Baloch have attacked!" he declared, before marking out 'strategic points' where Indian forces had allegedly caused 'major destruction' on a glowing map behind him.
Over on Republic World, Arnab Goswami claimed that a massive blast had been heard outside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's "residence" as Indian forces turned their attention to Islamabad.
Zee News, not to be outdone, reported that Pakistan's army chief, General Asim Munir, had been arrested in a coup - while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was supposedly leading mass protests against PM Shehbaz.
Even Barkha Dutt - once a respected figure in Indian journalism - joined the frenzy. "BREAKING — our Navy has targeted the Karachi Port — as part of the massive ongoing retaliation in response to Pakistan missiles and drones targeted at multiple locations in India including Jammu airport," she posted on X, linking to her broadcast. She had earlier also shared posts about the supposed 'capture' of a Pakistani pilot.
And so the night went on.