Indian wire agency using think tanks, non-existent organisations to run disinformation campaign against China, Pakistan

A recent report by a European organization has revealed how fake narratives by the Indian media went viral on Chinese social media platforms recently, drawing attention to India’s allegedly vast smear campaign against China and Pakistan.

A report published by EuDisinfolab, in feb 2023, exposes more details and evidences to prove that Asian News International (ANI), an Indian wire agency, has been quoting a number of non-existent organizations, journalists and bloggers as ‘sources’ to spread disinformation, attacking China and Pakistan. The report further uncovered that India has long been building a huge anti-China and anti-Pakistan disinformation network and that Indian media outlets have built a sophisticated assembly line of fake anti-China and anti-Pakistan news.

In the report, researchers write that ANI has been repeatedly quoting articles and reports issued by a think tank named the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS). The think tank was previously chaired by Mario Silva, a former Canadian Member of Parliament (MP), and dissolved in 2014, according to public information provided on a Canadian government website.

However, when they checked IFFRAS’ official website, the researchers found that it has kept updating information, including articles, news, books and even conferences, and that ANI has kept quoting information from the think tank’s website.
For example, on December 27, 2022, IFFRAS published an article titled “Pakistan’s persecution of minorities under scanner again,” and on the same day, the article was quoted by ANI in a piece of news headlined “Pakistan’s ill-treatment of minorities under scanner after UK sanctions Sindhi cleric,” with most of the contents coming from the IFFRAS article.

The IFFRAS think tank mentioned in the lab report was also found to be linked to the Srivastava Group headed by Ankit Srivastava, as the researchers found that IFFRAS has been registered by using a well-known email address from the Srivastava Group.

This group is a representative of the disinformation war launched by India against China. Under the lead of the Srivastava Group, which is based in Geneva and Brussels, an information warfare network has been woven, with a number of fake media, think tanks and NGOs all over the world.