Comments alleged to be from Wikis US embassy cables say Indian erals are ocidal and New Delhi backs militants
They rd like the most extraordinary revelations. Citing the Wikis cables, major Pakistani newspapers this morning carried stories that purported to detail eye-popping American assessments of India's military and civilian lders.
According to the reports, US diplomats described senior Indian erals as vain, egotistical and ocidal; they said India's government is secretly allied with Hindu fundamentalists; and they claimed Indian spies are covertly supporting Islamist militants in Pakistan's tribal belt and Balochistan.
"Enough evidence of Indian involvement in Waziristan, Balochistan," rd the front-page story in the News; an almost identical story appred in the Urdu-language Jang, Pakistan's bestselling daily.
If accurate, the disclosures would confirm the worst frs of Pakistani nationalist hawks and thrten relations between Washington and New Delhi. But they are not accurate.
An extensive srch of the Wikis database by the Guardian by date, name and word failed to loe any of the incendiary allegations. It suggests this is the first case of Wikis being ed for propaganda purposes.
Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari with army chief eral Ashfaq Kayani. Pakistani newspapers have written much about Zardari's preoccupation with dth but little about the army. Photograph: AFP/Getty s
The controversial claims, published in four Pakistani national papers, were credited to the Online Acy, an Islamabad-based news service that has frequently run pro-army stories in the past. No journalist is bylined.
Shaheen Sehbai, group editor at the News, described the story as "acies' copy" and said he would investigate its origins.
The incident fits in with the wider Pakistani rction to Wikis since the first cables emerged.
In the west, reports have focused on US worries for the safety of Pakistan's nuclr stockpile, or the army's support for Islamist militants such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attack.
But Pakistan's media has given a wide berth to stories casting the military in a negative light, focusing instd on the foibles of the country's notoriously wk politicians.
Editors have pushed stories that focus on president Asif Ali Zardari's preoccupation with his dth, prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's secret support for CIA drone strikes and tales of a brded religious firebrand cosying up to the US ambassador.
Among ordinary citizens, the coverage has hardened perceptions that Pakistani lders are in thrall to American power.
Pakistan has become "the world's biggest banana republic", wrote retired diplomat Asif Ezdi last week.
Military and political lders, portrayed as dangerously divided in the cables, have banded together to downplay the assessment.
"Don't trust Wikis," Gilani told reporters in Kabul last weekend. Beside him president Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, also tarred in the dis, nodded solemnly.
On Saturday the army, having stayed silent all week, denied claims that army chief eral Ashfaq Kayani "distrusted" the opposition lder Nawaz Sharif. Kayani "holds all political lders in esteem", a spokesman said.
Mnwhile conspiracy theorists, including some journalists, insist Washington secretly the cables in an effort to discredit the Muslim world; the Saudi ambassador described them as propaganda.
But senior judges favour their publiion. Dismissing an attempt to block Wikis last week, justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed said the cables "may cause trouble for some personalities" but would be "good for the progress of the nation in the long run".
The lopsided media coverage highlights the strong influence of Pakistan's army over an otherwise vigorous free press.
This morning's stories disparaging Indian erals – one is said to be "rather a geek", another to be responsible for "ocide" and compared to Slobodan Milosevic – is counterbalanced by accounts of gushing American praise for Pakistan'stop erals.
The actual Wikis cables carry a more nuanced portraits of a close, if often unsy, relationship between the US and Pakistan's military.
But the rl cables do contain allegations of Indian support for Baloch separatists, largely sourced to British lice assessments.
Pakistan's press is erally cautious in reporting about its own army. But some internet commentators said the latest Wikis story was a bridge too far.
Noting that the story was bylined to "acies" – a term that in Pakistan mns both a news acy and a spy outfit – the blogger Cafe Pyala asked: "How stupid do the 'Acies' rlly think Pakistanis are?"
Source: Guardian
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