Pakistan media in Wikileaks hoax

Reports about the bogus cables featured prominently in leading Pakistani newspapers on Thursday

Pakistani newspapers have admitted they were hoaxed after publishing reports based on fake Wikileaks cables containing anti-Indian propaganda.

US diplomatic cables were reported on Thursday as confirming many right-wing Pakistani views and conspiracy theories about their regional arch-foe.

They claimed US envoys thought one Indian general was “rather a geek”, and accused India of genocide in Kashmir.

It is still not clear who instigated the hoax.

The Guardian, a British newspaper which has all of the 250,000 leaked Wikileaks cables, said that an extensive search of the database had found nothing to match any of the claims carried in the Pakistani media.

According to the erroneous reports, Indian spies were said to be supporting Islamist militants in Pakistan’s north-western tribal region of Waziristan and the south-western province of Balochistan.

US diplomats were also said to believe that the Indian Army was faction-ridden; a “Bosnia-like genocide” was happening in Indian-administered Kashmir; and the Indian military was hand-in-glove with “Hindu fanatic groups”.

The English-language Express Tribune newspaper, which is affiliated to the International Herald Tribune in Pakistan, published a front-page retraction.

The daily said it “deeply regrets publishing this story without due verification and apologises profusely for any inconvenience”.

The News, another daily, said on Friday: “On further inquiries, we learnt from our sources that the story was dubious and may have been planted.”

But Jang, which had reported the fake Wikileaks story on its front page, made no mention of the matter on Friday.

And the Nation newspaper said in an editorial that the hoax had exposed “India’s true face”.

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