FALSE STORY “Qamar Bajwa becomes Pakistan’s first ‘Qadiani’ Army Chief” PLANTED to stir turmoil within the Muslim Majority of PAKISTAN
Hours after Lt. General Qamar Bajwa was announced as the next Chief of Army Staff by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a FALSE rumor started circulating on social media about his ‘religious sect’. The rumor claimed that the future COAS was a follower of the Qadiani faith, which is, to say the least, completely FALSE and baseless. A ghost account created under the name of Ms.Fatima Bajwa on this very website i.e. www.medium.com started this rumor in the form of a story which was systemically fabricated to the core.
The link to the said story can be found (below):
Now Ms.Fatima Bajwa, which the writer believes is not the real name or even the gender of the Fabricator, knew exactly what she was trying to achieve. The Fabricator wanted to promote turmoil and insecurity within the Muslim Majority of Pakistan, where Qadianis are not “officially” considered Muslims by the State, using the narrative that one of the most powerful posts in the country had been secured by one. The story was also to be used as propaganda to undermine the influence and authority of the GHQ via the office of the COAS.
In the words of the NAZI propaganda expert Joseph Goebbels:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
The Fabricator believed that if a rumor was started, it would leave a meaningful impact on the minds of people regardless of its factual standing.
The article was opened with a well placed doctored image, shown (below), to try and create a false bravado while maliciously delivering the writer’s propaganda:
As can be seen (below), the real image has nothing to do with the General and the (above) fabrication was created using Photoshop:
Now the FAKE STORY about the General’s ‘faith” written on this very website makes some tall and outrageous claims. The Fabricator has delivered an extensive narrative supported by images to promote their propaganda, however, most of the information is an out right lie with only minor details such as the name of the General’s father and his service record, which are all part of the public record, being correct.
The propaganda wants people to believe that the father of General Javed Qamar Bajwa is buried in Rabwa’s Chenab Nagar, a graveyard that Ahmadis deem as a sacred and holy site.
The FAKE STORY claims:
The claim made in this passage is a complete and outright lie. The Generals father is not buried in Rabwah but according to the natives of his hometown, the Generals Father Col Muhammad Iqbal Bajwa was buried in Cheemianwala graveyard in Gakhar city and that the General had visited his father’s grave two years ago. (Source: Daily Pakistan)
The narrative goes onto show various random images, like the one (below), to establish that the General visited his father’s grave in Rabwah, however, there is only one problem with this “so called” concrete evidence, there is no GENERAL in the picture and the picture is from the Burial of Major Afzal Mehmood Shaheed who was martyred in Operation Rahe Raast in Northern Areas! Pakistan Army was in Rabwah for the Burial and Salute.
The FALSE STORY also used the grave of the General’s father by showing a close up of its Tomb Stone, another attempt at propaganda, as shown (below), to establish that the grave is located in Rabwah, however, the background was deliberately not shown to hide its actual location:
To conclude this article we need to address the elephant in the room, or perhaps, the country. The Fabricator used a few random pictures and a story posted from a ghost account to create a narrative that many people, mostly Pakistanis, blindly shared on social media as fact. Seeing as how this rumor has spread across social media like wild fire, we all need to ask ourselves the following questions:
Is this what we as a nation have come down to?
Do we not understand or see that our actions have consequences?
Is it really that easy to fool us?
Who benefits from such a rumor and why was it started?
We Pakistanis need to use our heads before jumping to conclusions and always stay cautious about half baked stories that appear on social media. Just because it is on the internet does not mean that it is all true. Smarten up and fact check before you post Pakistan!
The writer is a citizen of Pakistan, a lawyer, a legal activist and an Army Brat who has had the chance of coming across the General in real life. The General is a professional soldier with the personality of a seasoned hunter. May God grant him success while fighting terrorism and militancy in Pakistan, the success that all of us Pakistanis so desperately need in these trying times.