After Defence, Home Ministry too issues Advisory on social media

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 10: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has taken serious note of rumours being spread by Pakistan through social media and issued an Advisory to all paramilitary officials and jawans not to fall prey to them and keep away from such messages till their authenticity is verified from the official channels.
“Pakistan and its proxies have opened up a new front of spreading concocted stories and indulging in purely rumour mongering by misusing the social media. Hate messages, which are far away from reality, are being circulated. The text of the messages is such that some people could easily believe them,” sources told the Excelsior.
They said it has been observed that sometimes even the paramilitary officials and jawans, who were operating in Jammu and Kashmir, have also fallen prey to such messages and further circulated without verifying genuineness and authenticity of the messages, which lend credibility to them.
“Sometimes officials and jawans have directly forwarded the messages received on social media without checking. They shouldn’t forward any message till it’s authenticated or is in the national interest because you have not only the responsibility of tackling militancy and anti-national elements but also to maintain country’s unity and integrity,” the Advisory said while asking jawans to maintain extraordinary alert in operating the social media.
The MHA Advisory came amidst reports that Pakistan army and Intelligence agencies and cyber cells of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen continued to foment trouble on social media by spreading hate messages and incorrect information pertaining to encounters, search operations, infiltration attempts etc.
“Unintentionally, it has been observed that some of these messages had also been forwarded by the paramilitary personnel,” sources pointed out but added that number of such jawans, who had re-posted the messages was very few. However, the Advisory would ensure that the paramilitary personnel don’t forward messages unless their genuineness is confirmed.
Sources said it was not only Pakistan and their backed militants but some of their proxies within the country including Jammu and Kashmir were also engaged in spreading canards on social media pertaining to current situation in the Valley.
Asserting that misuse of social media was not only confined to instigating youth to stone pelting or reaching sites of encounter to facilitate escape of the militants, sources said, it (the misuse) has attained new dimensions in the form of floating rumours about the incidents, number of casualties and related issues, which directly affect the role of security forces, who have been fighting hard battles in the Valley to tackle militancy and unrest apart from tensions along the Line of Control (LoC).
The Defence Ministry has already cautioned its soldiers to use the social media very carefully as it was observed that Pakistan’s Intelligence agencies, mainly the ISI, had been laying honey traps for the jawans and extract whatever information was available with them.
The Defence Ministry had issued series of guidelines pertaining to use of Smart Phones, operating of social media etc by the soldiers, sources recalled and said the guidelines have served the purpose to quite an extent.
However, according to sources, Pakistan Intelligence agencies and cyber cells of certain militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen have been making desperate efforts to use the social media to spread rumours and trap the security personnel but pre-emptive measures taken by the security forces have thwarted their designs to maximum possible extent.
It may be mentioned here that two major militant outfits, operating in Kashmir, the LeT and HM have their separate cyber cells operating in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) from where they have not only been inciting the people in the Kashmir valley but also trying to extract important information.
The militant outfits have hired highly professional experts to run their cyber cells through which they are also running their propaganda on Kashmir.

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