EU-based Indian network targeting Pakistan with fake local media, zombie NGOs exposed

On Dec 10, 2020 Last updated Oct 4, 2021

The EU DisinfoLab, an NGO based in Brussels, has exposed a massive Indian intelligence operation targeting Pakistan, international institutions and serving Indian interests with fake content and misleading propaganda.

The network believed to be led by Indian intelligence agencies resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs to undermine Pakistan and further the interests of India and Narendra Modi.

This network is active in Brussels and Geneva.

According to the report, Asian News International, India’s largest video news agency, and the Srivastava group—a shadowy business conglomerate that came into the spotlight in India after it organised a visit to Kashmir for far-right members of the European Parliament, in late 2019, were the key partners of the Indian network.

The report, titled “Indian Chronicles,” is based on a year-long investigation by the NGO, which was built upon and published exclusively by news organisations such as Les Jours in France.

Les Jours quoted a misinformation expert who described this campaign as “a network … whose scope and impact are comparable to the operation of Russian interference during the campaign in the United States in 2016.”

The DisinfoLab report described how fake media websites and NGOs run by the Srivastava group lobbied members of the European parliament, or MEPs, to write op-eds taking pro-India stances, often against Pakistan or China, which were then published on the group’s dummy news websites.

ANI then quoted these as credible reports from European media, from where Indian media and news channels reproduced and disseminated them, unchecked. The Les Jours report suggested that the entire operation could be linked to Indian intelligence services.

Indian Chronicles’ key objective is to undermine Pakistan internationally.

To do so, they resurrected dead NGOs at the UN.

They impersonated the EU.

They laundered content produced by fake media to real media – and reached millions in South-Asia & across the world. (2/n)

— EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) December 9, 2020

We soon found the NGO he was supposedly leading officially ceased to exist in 2007 and was now regularly speaking at the UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) to slam Pakistan. (4/n) pic.twitter.com/tCkLGUG4Bx

— EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) December 9, 2020

According to DisinfoLab, the network has been frequently used to manufacture calls of solidarity from European leaders for the Modi government’s actions. One example that the report cited concerned surgical strikes by the Indian Army in Pakistan, ahead of the 2019 general elections.

EP Today, a dummy website run by the Srivastava group, published an op-ed by Ryszard Czarnecki, a member of the European parliament. Czarnecki wrote in support of the strikes. ANI then reproduced this opinion, but with a crucial twist—it claimed this to be the EU’s official statement, announcing its support of Modi. This disinformation was then reported by other Indian outlets, such as the Economic Times, reaching millions of Indians.

The DisinfoLab report also found that for 15 years, organisations connected to the Srivastava group had been making representations at the Council for Human Rights, at the United Nations, primarily undermining Pakistan.

According to the report, organisations connected to the Srivastava group even “resurrected” dead people and dead NGOs—that is, used their names and identities—to create an air of credibility around themselves.

The latest DisinfoLab report builds upon a 2019 report that had exposed EP Today’s workings. In October 2019, the European External Action Service’s East Strat Com, effectively the EU’s task force to tackle disinformation, revealed that the EP Today website had been republishing a large amount of news directly from Russia Today and Voice of America. When DisinfoLab investigated the organisation, it found “a large number of articles and op-eds related to minorities in Pakistan as well as other India related matters.”

The investigation also linked EP Today to a “large network of think tanks, NGOs, and companies from the Srivastava Group.” The IP address of EP Today was registered by an NGOs linked to the Srivastava group. Their findings, which included at least 265 fake news sites that operated in around sixty countries, all linked to Indian interests, were published in a December 2019 report. Following this publication, the EP Today website disappeared, as did a range of other news organisation named in the report.

The DisinfoLab’s 2020 report states that EP Today has been reconstituted into a new publication called EU Chronicle. On 14 August 2020, the Chronicle’s twitter account posted a video by Thierry Mariani, a French far-right leader, in which he said, “I want to extend my sincere and warmest greetings to Prime Minister Modi on this Indian Independence Day. It is a pleasure to see India excel under your dynamic leadership as the world battles Covid19.” The Chronicle then posted similar messages from other right-wing leaders, such as Czarnecki and Fulvio Martusciello, from Italy. A month later, EU Chronicle posted a video of Mariani wishing Modi on his birthday. The DisinfoLab found that a majority of the content published by the EU Chronicle was copying press releases or reports that seemed like they had been written by bots. Despite its limited presence, it has published multiple articles by Czarnecki and Martusciello. All three—Mariani, Czarnecki and Martusciello—were among the MEPs who visited Kashmir.

When asked about whether the report had proof of ANI working directly with the Srivastava companies, AlexandreAlaphilippe, the director of DisinfoLab, wrote that he had “no comment,” before adding: “But I encourage you to look at these facts: eu chronicle set up on 6th May. 11th may already 3 op-eds from 3 MEPs. On 12th May, ANI quotes Eu chronicle as an independent media and reliable source.”

The Les Jours report shows how the Indian lobby gets European politicians to support Indian foreign interests. Julie Ward, a British member of the European parliament, was approached by Madi Sharma, a lobbyist, to cosign articles for EP Today on women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. (Sharma was among the organisers of the Kashmir visit.) Ward later posed at least one question suggested by Sharma in the European parliament. “Then I was asked to co-sign a column on human-rights violations in Balochistan”—in Pakistan—“which made me uncomfortable, it seemed very biased to me,” Ward told Antoine Hasday and Nicolas Quénel, who reported for Les Jours. “Even though I am critical of the Pakistani government, I was increasingly worried about Narendra Modi’s (nationalist and authoritarian drift).” The article also linked Sharma to EU Chronicle.

Les Jours quoted Alaphilippe, the director of DisinfoLab, as saying that op-eds were common in Brussels. “This allows MEPs to put forward their positions and it reinforces the credibility of the media that publishes it. This can also be used to gain the confidence of the deputies for lobbyists before suggesting parliamentary questions to them, for example.” The report suggests that this is a favoured tactic of Indian agents to push soft-power in Europe.

The Les Jours report suggests that Indian intelligence services could be behind the Srivastava group’s misinformation operations. It cited various examples to justify this claim. It quoted a statement by the Lawyers for Human Rights International, a human-rights organisation based in Punjab, on an incident related to Pramila Srivastava, a board member of the group and wife of the group’s founder. Pramila threatened a pediatrician for speaking about infanticide in Punjab in the UN Human Rights Commission, LHRI stated. Pramila responded to the doctor’s presentation saying it would create “a false image of India,” and that doctor would have to “assume the consequences.” The pediatrician was questioned by the Indian intelligence services on her return to the country.

Les Jours noted that a company run by Ankur Srivastava, also of the Srivastava family, makes malware which he said is only sold to Indian intelligence services. It also noted that the Srivastava group runs several fake news websites including Socialist Weekly, Khalsa Akhbar Lahore and the Times of Azad Kashmir, which are likely linked to Indian intelligence services. When asked about this, Alaphilippe said, “We do not have a formal attribution of this operation. However, its sophistication as well as its physical presence both in Brussels and Geneva is something that really intrigues us. You need more than a few computers to plan and sustain such an action.”

A sizable portion of the 2020 DisinfoLab report discusses how ANI misrepresents reports from EU Chronicle and other Srivastava group linked organisations to convince an Indian audience that Modi’s actions have support in Europe. The report notes that Yahoo News India and BP Business World have reproduced at least 8 ANI dispatches based on content originating from EU Chronicle, and ZEE5 has reproduced at least 9 segments of content. The Business Standardnewspaper and the Times of India have also used this type of content. According to the count of DisinfoLab investigators, ANI has already copied content published by EU Chronicle 13 times in just six months. It is unclear why ANI so often republishes the work of such an obscure news organisation—the news organisation did not respond to Les Jours requests for comment.

The 2020 DisinfoLab report also points to how NGOs and freshly restored international organisations linked to the Srivastava network worked as a lobby in the UN Human Rights Commission to whitewash state-led Indian atrocities and highlight violence in Pakistan. The DisinfoLab identified at least ten NGOs as part of the Indian disinformation network. Some of these had formal links to India, and some had even been shut down before they were restarted to serve Indian needs. The report states that the Canners International Permanent Committee of Conservation—a French conservation NGO which closed down in 2007—was restarted by the Srivastava network to speak about Pakistan at the UNHRC, often portraying it in a negative light.

Similarly, DisinfoLab notes, the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, an international organisation that ceased all activities in the 1970s, was resurrected by the network to frequently criticise Pakistan in Geneva. The email ID of CSOP was used to register other websites linked to the Indian network. In the jargon of Geneva, DisinfoLab noted, such organisations are called “government-organised” non-governmental organisations, sponsored by states to represent a country’s interests or damage the image of a rival. The report, however, stated that this did not clearly violate any rules of the UN or the UNHRC.

“ANI remains the only press agency to extensively cover the activities of dubious NGOs in Geneva,” the DisinfoLab report says, describing the agency’s work as “distortion.” Quenel, one of the Les Jours reporters, described an instance where ANI seemed fully aware that it was misreporting news from NGOs in Geneva. In September, a man called Lakhu Luhana spoke at the UNHRC, representing World Environment and Resources Council—an organisation that disappeared in the 1980s, but was resurrected to serve Indian strategic interests like the CSOP and the CIPCC. Quenel noted that ANI had issued a dispatch and a tweet on the speech, which focused on the “persecution” of the Pakistani Sindhi minority. “In the ANI tweet it is WERC which is mentioned, however, the title of the dispatch, mentions a completely different association: the World Sindhi Congress,” Quenel said. “A simple search of the World Sindhi Congress shows clearly that Lakhu Luhana is its general secretary. ANI’s spontaneous mention of the World Sindhi Congress demonstrates that it was aware of the duplicity of the WERC’s role at Geneva.”

The Les Jours report notes that in 2019, Mariani also went to Geneva on the invitation of the South Asia Democratic Forum—a Brussels-based think tank. The SADF was created in 2011 by Paulo Casaca, a former MEP, and is domiciled in Brussels at the same address as an office of an organisation linked to the Srivastava group. The domain name of the think tank was also registered directly by the Indian company. In September 2019, SADF sent Mariani by plane to Geneva, in business class, and paid for two nights at the luxurious Beaurivage hotel. All this, in order to attend a press conference on Jammu and Kashmir, organised by the think tank—an event, Quenel noted, “that was covered by the media of the Srivastava group, and by the ANI.”

“In our past studies, we never encountered such a coordination between different stakeholders,” Alaphilippe said. “The fact, that during 15 years, and even after being partially exposed last year, this operation is able to keep its activities shows the sophistication and the willingness of the actors behind Indian Chronicles. It is definitely the biggest network we’ve exposed.”

Disinformation “has been part of the playbook of all countries,” Alaphilippe added. “For instance, we found out a very similar operation serving Pakistani interests in Geneva, which points at how all countries are learning from each other and adapt … Just imagine if the same operation would have been carried out by China or Russia. What would have been the headlines of the media?” He called for action from European bodies against such acts, saying that “the biggest failure from institutions would be if another report is released next year on the same actors with the same techniques. This would mean that EU institutions … are ok with foreign interferences.”

From then on, we uncovered an entire network of coordinated UN-accredited NGOs promoting Indian interests and criticizing Pakistan repeatedly. We could tie at least 10 of them directly to the Srivastava family, with several other dubious NGOs pushing the same messages.

These UN-accredited NGOs work in coordination with non-accredited think-tanks and minority-rights NGOs in Brussels and Geneva. Several of them – like the European Organization for Pakistani Minorities (EOPM), Baluchistan House and the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) – were directly but opaquely created by the Srivastava group. In Geneva, these think-tanks and NGOs are in charge of lobbying, organising demonstrations and speaking during press conferences and UN side-events. They were repeatedly given the floor at the UN on behalf of the accredited organisations.

The role of ANI: Repackaging and amplifying the content produced in Brussels & Geneva

Back to EU Chronicle. The only valuable coverage these op-eds receive, comes from an immediate repackaging by an Indian press agency named ANI (Asian News International), often quoting these op-eds as genuine articles from “independent media EU Chronicle”. Without Times of Geneva and 4 News Agency which stopped their activities following our previous investigation, ANI – which is considered as one of the biggest news agencies in India and the largest television agency of India – remains the only press agency to extensively cover the activities of dubious NGOs in Geneva.

The coverage – and often distortion – by ANI of the content produced in Brussels and Geneva led us to the Big News Network and the World News Network – an entire network of 500+ fake local media in 95 countries that have helped reproduce negative iterations about Pakistan (or China). We also realised that the content produced was primarily targeted at Indian nationals, with an extensive coverage of these barely known “media”, MEPs and “NGOs” in Europe.

Essentially, our investigation details how the activities of a fake zombie-NGO and that of a fake specialised media can be repackaged, distorted and amplified by malicious actors to influence or disinform globally, using loopholes in international institutions and online search engines.

Key facts

In a nutshell, Indian Chronicles is:

a 15 year-long operation running since 2005;
10+ UN Human Rights Council accredited NGOs, mostly resurrected;
The resurrection of Prof. Louis B. Sohn, a prominent figure in human rights, deceased in 2006;
Several identity thefts, including the name of Martin Schulz, former president of the European Parliament or the photo of James Purnell, a former UK Government minister;
750+ fake media outlets, covering 119 countries;
550+ domain names registered.

Summary of the 15-year influence operation

Our open-source investigation shows that the operation led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by ANI began in 2005 and is still ongoing at this date.

The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent. Its long-term objective is:

In India, to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings.
Internationally, to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India, to damage the reputation of other countries and ultimately benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.

To do so, the operation consists of:

The support to minority and human rights NGOs and think-tanks.
The use of Members of the European Parliament to create a mirage of institutional support from European institutions to these minority groups, in favour of Indian interests and against Pakistan (and China).
An active presence in Geneva and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council through:
- side-events and demonstrations in support of minority rights;
- impersonation of extinguished UN-accredited NGOs or use speaking slots reserved to various NGOs whose original missions seem totally unrelated.
The creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and/or the repackaging and dissemination via ANI and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries – to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan.

Policy recommendations

We are alarmed to see the continuation of Indian Chronicles which – despite our first report and wide press coverage – has pursued its 15-year long operation and even recently launched EU Chronicle, a fake EU outlet. This should serve as a call to action for decision-makers to put in place a relevant framework to sanction actors abusing our international institutions. It is possible that the absence of messages from the institutions affected by Indian Chronicles provided the space and opportunity for the operation to reinvent itself and to continue doing “more of the same”.

It is also our belief that the possibility for malicious actors to abuse search engines by reproducing the same content hundreds of times should also be challenged.

Our investigation relied heavily on the analysis of websites and domain names, rather than online platforms. Much of what we uncovered could be found thanks to website domain names registration history and because many websites of Indian Chronicles were created at a time when malicious actors were less concerned with privacy. Nowadays, malicious actors register domain names and create websites anonymously, making detection more difficult. The regulatory discussion on data transparency from platforms now taking place should be broadened to include greater scrutiny of domain names. Domain name information is critical for disinformation researchers; we therefore advocate for sufficient transparency for researchers investigating malicious domains. We also urge the domain name industry to seriously reflect on this kind of fraudulent, disinforming behaviour as technical abuse of the domain name system.

Source: EU Disinfo Lab and Caravan Magazine