LONDON/WASHINGTON: The recent anti Pakistan poster campaign in the topworld’s capital which drew Pakistan foreign office irk revealed to be thework of the Indian forces as was speculated earlier.
Pakistan had earlier hinted that strong Indian lobby and diaspora seemed tobe behind the campaign but however now it has been revealed that IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government, the ruling BJP isdirectly behind the campaign.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s close aide and Bhartiya JanataParty’s New Delhi spokesperson has eerie links to the expensiveadvertisements that sprung up in two major international cities across theworld to malign Pakistan, Geo News has reported.
The so-called ‘Free Balochistan campaign’ adverts appeared one afteranother in London and then New York bearing similar language, content andgraphics on billboards and messages splashed across taxicabs. The maliciouscampaign, apparently, started off in New Delhi, where a group led by Modi’saide Tajindra Pal Singh Bagga defaced walls around the Pakistan HighCommission and pasted posters demanding an end to the alleged human rightsviolations in Balochistan. Around that time, Tajindra Bagga was appointedas spokesperson of the ruling BJP in New Delhi.
A Baloch source familiar with the campaign says that Bagga has links withthe campaign’s international advertisements. Bagga owned up the New Delhivandalisation. “Even my name was up there on those posters,” he said,adding that the international advertisements might just have been inspiredby his campaign, now that he has managed to get prominence.
Bagga denied having any contacts with Baloch separatists or separatistorganisation in this regard while also boasting that he has beencampaigning for the last five years and held a seminar on Balochistan aswell.
Bagga has Narendra Modi as one of his followers on Twitter. The Indianprime minister had even hosted Bagga along with other pro-right mediainfluencers at his official residence in an event called ‘#super150.’ Heand his colleagues claim credit for attacking Kashmiri leader Syed Ali ShahGilani and Arundhati Roy for speaking up for the rights of Indian-heldKashmiris. Bagga has been supported in such campaigns by the Hindtva groupsand leadership of the BJP. Dozens of social media posts were run by the BJPleaders for several days to popularise the campaigns. Some exiled Balochactivists also supported Bagga’s campaign and congratulated him oninitiating anti-Pakistan campaign.
The campaign on London streets and its transport network was rolled out bythe World Baloch Organisation. The WBO’s Bahawal Mengal, nephew of Balochnationalist leaders Mehran Marri and Akhtar Mengal, and son of Javed AkhtarMengal, has publicly owned the international advertisements stating that hewas doing so to highlight the “case of Balochistan”.
When the Transport for London (TfL) suspended some of the advertisementsafter a strong protest from Pakistani authorities, the WBO and BahawalMengal issued several statements and condemned the TfL for overturning thecampaign. He also announced that he was funding and publicising thecampaign in New York.
Massive billboards at the New York’s Times Square and advertisements onlocal transport vehicles sprung up towards the end of December. ThePakistan Embassy officials were expecting this campaign, and they said theyhad notified the State authorities in advance but were helpless to respondeffectively.
“The embassy came to know about the campaign which appears to be acontinuity of the malicious stratagem that was on display in othercosmopolitan cities across the world a few months back,” one of thehigh-level officials told The News hoping that the campaign will miserablyfail just as before. “We have been in contact with the State Department andother subsidiaries to limit the campaign and not let it expand to othercities,” the official said, adding, “Our stance is absolute that in thegarb of freedom of expression, American land should not be allowed to useagainst Pakistan’s autonomy and territorial integrity.”
After enormous haggling from the Pakistani side, the UK Foreign Office andTfL ordered the removal of the advertisements, but the Pakistani officialscould not convince the Americans to stop the ads. The US laws stronglybelieve in the freedom to voice your concerns, and it works like a charm ifthe said concern is paid to be displayed as an advertisement.
The Pakistani consulate in New York backed the position of its Embassy inWashington that the US authorities were engaged in advance to curtail thecampaign. A high level official at the consulate confirmed that his officehad a meeting with the Office of Foreign Mission and an investigation intothe matter has been promised. The official, requesting not to be namedhere, maintained that the OFM was also asked to inquire why such a campaignwas allowed. The consulate official says that his office wants to meet upwith the mayor of New York City, as well as the governor of the New Yorkstate to raise the issue. The consulate also plans to hold a meeting withthe Taxi and Limousine Commission, a city government’s agency that dealswith licences and regulates taxis and for-hire vehicles industries.
Mehran Marri, who was recently denied entry in Switzerland, has deniedhaving any links with this campaign and sources close to Akhtar Mengal havesaid that the Baloch politician has nothing to do with these activities.