Murky details of anti-India info warfare emerge

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<strong>The "toolkit" posted by Greta Thunberg had a "foreign expert" as resource person. This name was also central to an OSINT investigation regarding info-war against India – Pieter Friedrich, according to a report by The Disinfolab.</strong></p>
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The report titled "THE UN-ENDING WAR: From Proxy War to Info-War against India", notes that it turns out, it was an elaborate design, that was under play since 2007. It involved a slew of shady companies in the US, fake foreign experts and even ghost entities.<br />
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The linkages of the mastermind could be traced back to a major terror plot hatched against India in 1990s in collusion with ISI.<br />
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While taking the cover of Khalistan, the network works for Pakistani interests. The key players on scene during the 1990 bombing plans are still around and connected.<br />
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The network was targeting Indian interest at the global scale, including even Indian origin American politicians.<br />
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The story also decodes how some of the most prolific and influential people in India – from media to journalists and intellectuals – provided a nourishing eco-system to the network in damaging Indian interests, as per Disinfolab.<br />
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Disinfolab said the name of one of the key players of their story came up in the toolkit dropped accidentally by Thunberg. The toolkit had mentioned a foreign expert as resource point – Pieter Friedrich. It was startling. "Pieter was part of a story we were already working since about a month in context of info-war against India," it said.<br />
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The report notes that Info-War/psy-war is one of the fanciest discussion topics. "Yet, the consciousness about its gravity and impact in India doesn't seem to be registering even with major stake-holders. Though we did expect it to be an elaborate design against India, their reach and depth within India and the impunity with which it was operating shocked us," it said.<br />
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The story goes far back into the past. During the turmoil of 1980s, a hitherto an unknown Khalistani Bhajan Singh Bhinder @Iqbal Choudhary appears on scene. He claimed his origins from Malaysia, and was operating from the US. He was essentially funding the terror network for carrying out large-scale violence in various cities in India through another rerrorist Lal Singh with the help of Pakistan's ISI. Indian escaped the the attack by a whisker when Lal Singh got arrested from Dadar railway station. Bhinder was eventually also put in India's Black-list till 2011, the report said.<br />
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The attacks were part of a larger conspiracy called K-2 (Kashmir – Khalistan) which was hatched in Lahore under the patronage of Amir ul Azeem, the then Secretary of Jamaat–e-Islami, and being supported by several Pakistani establishment players including Choudhary Altaf Hussain, eventually Governor of Punjab (Pakistan) and uncle of present S&T Minister of Pakistan Fawad Chaudhary.<br />
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At the same time, while in US, Bhinder and his gang was also involved in a major trans-national drug trafficking network, and a DVD piracy network. In order to fund their drug network, they managed to take control of one of the most prominent Gurudwaras in the US (Fremont Gurudwara), after a bloody fight within it. Fremont receives millions of dollars in contribution from devotees every year.<br />
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The report said that all this while Bhinder has also been trying to procure weapons to be sent to India via Pakistan. His quest of arms almost got him in the police net in the US. An investigation by DEA Special Agent Tim Lum reveals that Bhinder was looking for massive fire power to be sent to India. The deal however failed to materialise, as Bhinder got suspicious about the Agent. It was a close call for Bhinder.<br />
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It added that with change of millennium, Bhinder also changed his methods. In the early 2000, after the efforts to send weapons to India failed, and with new media and online platforms mushrooming, Bhinder (or the masterminds behind him) decided to shift focus towards launching info-war against India. To this end he plans to set up flimsy organisation and scouts for a suitable ‘white face', who could be used as face for the info-war operations.<br />
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"By 2006-7 Bhinder finds a young Christian Missionary Pieter Freidrich, who seemed to have a decent oratory and writing skills but was still wanting in terms of economic means. Pieter was even willing to work as security guard, and hence the offer to become an 'expert-activist' would have been quite lucrative to refuse. Pieter came on board and finds a new role as an anti-Gandhi crusader," the report said.</p>
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<em>(IANS)</em></p>
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