BJP Slams Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar Over Fake Telegraph Claim, Calls Out ‘Stupid Stuff’

Deputy PM Ishaq Dar quoted an AI-generated fake headline praising the Pakistan Air Force; fact-checkers and BJP leaders call out misinformation.

May 16, 2025: New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called out Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar after he cited a fake front-page headline from UK-based newspaper The Telegraph during a Senate speech, falsely declaring the Pakistan Air Force as the “undisputed king of the skies.”

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The image, widely circulated on social media, was found to be AI-generated and riddled with errors, confirmed by India’s PIB Fact Check and even Pakistan’s own newspaper Dawn, whose iVerify Pakistan team exposed the discrepancies.

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BJP Leaders React Sharply

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya posted a clip of Dar’s address and condemned the incident as a “web of lies and desperation.” “Pakistan’s propaganda is quickly falling apart,” he wrote, emphasizing that the claim was so outrageous that even Pakistan’s Dawn had to fact-check and debunk it.

BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar also weighed in, calling it “head-scratchingly stupid stuff” and compared the Pakistan Army’s approach to that of “Rahul’s Congress,” suggesting both operate on the assumption that “people are fools, so let’s just lie.”

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What Was the Claim?

In his address to the Pakistan Senate, Ishaq Dar quoted the alleged Telegraph headline as validation of Pakistan’s performance in the recent military exchange with India. The image he referred to had glaring spelling mistakes such as “Fyaw…” instead of “Force” and “preformance” instead of “performance,” which tipped off fact-checkers.

Dawn’s fact-checking revealed no such article exists, and the layout didn’t match The Telegraph’s authentic formats. India’s Press Information Bureau also confirmed the image was AI-generated.

The Context: Operation Sindoor

The misinformation comes in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, India’s military retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people. As India struck terror bases across Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, tensions soared, leading to several false narratives from across the border.

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Tags:

Ishaq Dar, BJP, Pakistan Air Force, Telegraph Fake News, PIB Fact Check, Operation Sindoor, India-Pakistan Conflict, Fake News, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Amit Malviya, Dawn iVerify, AI-generated image, OperationSindoor,