Pakistan’s dangerous fantasy of reclaiming Bangladesh through propaganda and intimidation

Barely five decades after Bangladesh emerged from the blood-soaked ruins of Pakistan’s colonial domination, forces within Islamabad are once again indulging in delusional fantasies of erasing Bangladesh’s sovereignty. What began as covert manipulation has now evolved into Pakistan’s regular practice of open psychological warfare — conducted through disinformation, social media propaganda, and provocative political posturing.

Pakistan’s military establishment and its notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), appear determined to revive their long-buried dream of reasserting influence over Bangladesh, even if that means trampling upon the sacrifices of millions who paid with their lives and honour for independence.

Following last year’s jihadist coup, Pakistan — through its military establishment, including the ISI — has increasingly attempted to challenge the sovereignty of Bangladesh by promoting its dangerous daydream of reclaiming the country and dragging it back under Islamabad’s grip.

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On December 24, 2025, a post appeared on Meta (formerly Facebook) from a page calling itself “The Times”, claiming, “Bangladesh considers changing national flag, anthem amid political shifts.” The post was accompanied by a grotesquely distorted image of Bangladesh’s national flag under the caption: “Bangladesh is considering changing its flag by adding a crescent and a star.”

This Meta page, created on July 7, 2024 — just days before the ouster of Sheikh Hasina — currently has over 288,000 followers (Page ID: 348707104997881). Notably, the page lists a Pakistani phone number, +92 317 3397895, used by one of its administrators. Although Meta has “confirmed” a link —  timesnew.pk — as belonging to this so-called outlet, no legitimate publication named The Times exists in Pakistan under this domain. Instead, the verified link redirects users to an Instagram account with more than 88,000 followers.

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A closer examination of both the Meta page and the associated Instagram account clearly reveals that these platforms function as propaganda instruments of Pakistan’s military establishment and ISI, rather than as any credible journalistic entity.

Meanwhile, Pakistani politicians, Islamist figures, and even jihadist sympathisers have escalated their rhetoric, brazenly behaving as though Bangladesh has already been “re-absorbed” into Pakistan or reduced to a mythical “East Pakistan”. In one particularly disturbing instance, Kamran Sayeed Usmani, a leader of the youth wing of Pakistan’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), issued a video threat warning India that any attack on Bangladesh would provoke a Pakistani missile response.

In the video, Usmani positioned Bangladesh’s national flag beside Pakistan’s — a symbolic act that amounts to a direct denial of Bangladesh’s sovereignty. This is an insult to a nation born through the sacrifice of three million martyrs and the violation of five to six hundred thousand women during Pakistan’s genocidal campaign in 1971.

Shockingly, authorities in Dhaka maintained a disturbing silence over this provocation. No official protest, condemnation, or diplomatic response was issued – an omission that risks emboldening hostile actors who openly question Bangladesh’s independence.

Some apologists continue to argue, almost defensively, that Bangladeshi authorities have yet to present “concrete evidence” of foreign agency involvement. This stance remains untenable, especially when international human rights organisations and the United Nations have repeatedly urged impartial investigations — not geopolitical evasion or wilful blindness.

Meanwhile, following the murder of Sharif Osman Hadi, one of the key figures behind last year’s Jihadist coup, an obscure website named ‘Times of Islamabad’ published a propaganda piece on December 22, 2025, stating India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) had a “confirmed role” in Hadi’s assassination. This propaganda piece, by relying on innuendo, made allegations stating the suspected killers of Hadi fled to India.

Any sensible individual will easily understand that what ‘Times of Islamabad’ has attempted is part of Pakistan’s old habit of spreading lies in a well-orchestrated manner.

According to my own research, ‘Times of Islamabad’, which claims to be operated by Makhdoom Balqees Bashir and Shahid Imran from an office in DHA Phase-8, Lahore, is neither recognised nor indexed by Google News nor staffed by identifiable journalists. Despite its claims of “10 million monthly viewers”, its actual readership even struggles to cross 200,000 visits per month.

While the website boasts of a global audience, its social media reach is artificially inflated through direct patronage from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and the ISI. The organisation operates under the corporate name Islamabad Times (Pvt) Limited, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under Corporate Universal Identification No 0099198 – a convenient legal façade for what is essentially a military-sponsored propaganda operation.

Most tellingly, this so-called media outlet has no visible newsroom, no reporters, and no editorial staff. It exists solely as a digital weapon, deployed to manipulate narratives, distort facts, and inject anti-India and anti-Hindu venom into Bangladesh’s information space.

From fabricated social media pages masquerading as international newspapers to reckless threats issued by Pakistani political operatives, the pattern is unmistakable. Pakistan’s military-ISI complex is no longer operating in the shadows — it is openly waging a psychological and ideological assault on Bangladesh’s sovereignty. These actions are not isolated incidents; they are coordinated attempts to normalise the idea that Bangladesh’s independence is negotiable, reversible, or disposable.

As a Bangladeshi journalist who has documented Pakistan’s ideological interference in South Asia for decades, I find this renewed audacity not only alarming but also deeply insulting to our nation’s hard-won sovereignty.

If Dhaka continues to respond with silence, this silence will be interpreted as weakness. Policy circles in Dhaka should not dismiss such provocations as “online noise”, as history teaches us that Pakistan’s hostility toward Bangladesh never begins with tanks or fighter jets — it begins with narrative and well-orchestrated propaganda. We must not forget: Bangladesh was born through resistance against Pakistani tyranny. Any attempt — covert or overt — to resurrect Islamabad’s toxic influence must be confronted decisively. The blood of 1971 demands vigilance, not amnesia or intellectual lathyrism.

Bangladesh’s sovereignty is non-negotiable, and those who dare to challenge it — whether through missiles, misinformation, or manufactured media — must be exposed, resisted, and held accountable before history is allowed to repeat its darkest chapter.

(Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an award-winning journalist, writer, and Editor of the newspaper Blitz. He specialises in counterterrorism and regional geopolitics. Follow him on X: @Salah_Shoaib. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)