The Pakistani military has come under scrutiny for presenting outdated and digitally manipulated imagery to support claims of heightened naval operational readiness. The image in question, prominently displayed during a recent press briefing, has since been proven to date back to at least 2023.
At a recent press conference in Islamabad, senior Pakistani military representatives, including Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed, Director General of Public Relations for the Pakistan Air Force, and Vice Admiral Raja Rab Nawaz, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, attempted to convince the Pakistani people that its air, land and sea assets are at their optimal best for deployment.
Vice Admiral Nawaz showed a photo purportedly depicting active deployment of Pakistan's naval fleet, featuring two warships, a submarine, and three aircraft, in what was described as an operational response to escalating tensions with India.
Image analysis and archival verification reveal that the photograph had previously appeared in an official Radio Pakistan publication in December 2023. The original image, taken during a joint Pakistan-China naval exercise in the Indian Ocean, shows a formation of Chinese and Pakistani warships with three Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft flying in formation overhead.
The same image was used in a 2023 article.
The image did not include the submarine seen in the version presented at the press event. This discrepancy strongly suggests that the image was digitally altered before being repurposed. A submarine, likely a Pakistan Navy diesel-electric vessel, was inserted into the image, an addition absent from the original photograph published under the headline "Naval Chief lauds achievements of operational objectives by Pakistan Navy."
That article reported on the Fleet Annual Efficiency Competition Parade held in Karachi and featured remarks by Admiral Naveed Ashraf.
There has been a deluge of misinformation and disinformation from Pakistan since tensions escalated bwteen the two countries after India's retaliatory move in response to the Pahalgam terroris attack, which killed 26 people.
The digital campaign extended beyond social media. Mainstream Pakistani media outlets carried segments reinforcing unsubstantiated claims, often citing unnamed "official sources" and offering little to no visual or documentary evidence.
