Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Pakistan has always been claiming its illegal right over it. Since Independence, in the last 77 years, it has devised numerous conspiracies to capture Kashmir. Not only this, it has also imposed several wars on India, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.
Certainly, failing in this repeated attempt, Pakistan provided arms and ammunition to common Kashmiri youth. As a result, the Valley of Kashmir has been painted with blood.
However, India has always been trying to establish peace in Kashmir. A slew of efforts were also conducted to protect ordinary folks, but Pakistan’s nefarious intentions never let it succeed.
However, India took a significant decision on August 5, 2019 and abolished Article 370 in Kashmir, to link it with the country, and a common Kashmiri got full rights of being an Indian.
About Youm-e-Istehsal
Pakistan could not digest this decision in favour of Kashmiris. It started propagating this step as oppression on Kashmiris, calling it Youm-e-Istehsal, that is, a day of exploitation.
Like every year, this year also, it officially celebrated Youm-e-Istehsal on August 5 with the aim of defaming India. Preparations for this had already been started on a large scale. Its foreign ministry had given instructions to its embassies all over the world.
The government celebrated Youm-e-Istehsal at its level and made baseless comments against India. In addition, trends were also run on social media in a planned manner regarding Youm-e-Istehsal, targeting India under the pretext of defending the rights of Kashmiri people.
Pak Foreign Ministry and Youm-e-Istehsal
Its foreign ministry trended #Youm_E_Istehsal, # Youm_e_Istehsal_Kashmir and #KashmiriLivesMatter on X(Twitter). Tweets from its foreign ministry and embassies can be observed under these trends, depicting glimpses of the programmes targeting India across the world.
#Youm_E_Istehsal
Mostly tweets of common users can be observed with this trend targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Army. Moreover, the abrogation of Article 370 was condemned. Surprisingly, the demand for independent Kashmir was also raised.
Pakistan’s propaganda against India
Interestingly, every year on August 5, Pakistan plays this drama of disseminating propaganda against India, all over the world, under the guise of supporting Kashmiris. Notably, this propaganda emerges with a new pattern. The content always remains the same. Not only this, attempts were made to paint Kashmir in Pakistani colours, with an anti-India mentality.
Bot accounts
Pakistan proliferated its propaganda on social media platform X, using bot accounts. For this, the same poster and content were used.
Youm_E_Istehsal and Mushaal Mullick
Mushaal Mullick is the wife of Kashmir’s separatist leader, Yasin Malik. He is serving a life sentence in a terror-funding case. Mushal Malik is a citizen of Pakistan. She married Yasin Malik in 2009.
She keeps campaigning on social media to separate Kashmir from India. A video showing her promoting Youm-e-Istehal was posted on X and was widely shared. However, Mushal Malik’s X account is restricted in India.
Google trend
A close examination of Google trends on Youm e Istehal Kashmir shows that the timeline was at its peak since the morning of August 5, indicating that people searched for this keyword the most on the same day. Later, it gradually decreased.
Users’ location
However, a glance at the location of the users associated with this keyword reveals that it has been mostly searched in Pakistan, implying that Pakistani users tweeted the most on this trend.
Tweets timeline
On a brief investigation of the tweet timeline, it has been found that the maximum number of tweets were noted on August 6, followed by 30 tweets which were made in a single day on August 4, when 173 tweets were posted from various handles with this keyword.
X accounts
The graph below shows the X accounts that have tweeted the most on the keyword — Youm-e-Istehsaal. These include @smart_human_1, @nehkhan10 and @FakharePothwar
Paksitani embassies
The table below shows the Pakistani embassies that tweeted under the hashtag Youm-e-Istehsal. Tweets have been done from @PakinKuwait, @PakinAlgeria, @PakinUSA, and @PakinFrance on X.
Conclusion
Pakistan officially celebrates Youm-e-Istehsal on August 5 every year to disseminate its narrative against India on Kashmir. Programmes were organized in government departments this year as well. Its foreign ministry had issued instructions to its embassies worldwide to celebrate Youm-e-Istehsal.
Everyone was provided with content to set the narrative which was later shared on social media. The social media and bot accounts emerged as facilitating tools for Pakistan.
