Info ministry rejects Times of India claim of Subhanallah mosque reconstruction

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Tuesday rubbished what it said were “delusional” reports by Indian media outlets about the alleged reconstruction of Bahawalpur’s Subhanallah Mosque at state expense after it was damaged in last year’s May conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi. 

The mosque was among the sites attacked in last year’s fighting between Pakistan and India. Multiple Indian media outlets reported that the site was nearly restored and operational again at a cost of Rs250 million by Pakistan.

In a statement posted on X, the information ministry stated that the Indian media lived in some “delusional world” where “concocted stories are spewed”, adding that these stories were circulated “at the behest of their political leadership, to desperately overcome the embarrassment faced through Pakistan’s befitting and just response during Marka-e-Haq, where innocent women, the elderly and children were attacked in a dastardly and illegal operation”.

“Times of India has falsely claimed reconstruction of the Subhanallah Mosque complex in Bahawalpur, with state financing of Rs250 million, following its damage during India’s botched ‘Operation Sindoor’,” the ministry said.

It added that after the “humiliation suffered” by India during Operation Sindoor following the “comprehensive, jaw-dropping, just and memorable retribution” from Pakistan, India was repeatedly attempting to “retroactively reshape the narrative which cannot substitute for independent facts”.

Read: ISPR rejects ‘highly dramatised, factually inaccurate’ Indian documentary on Operation Sindoor

It noted that the “pattern is increasingly evident, as also in India’s recent Sindoor documentary, which drew criticism for Bollywood-style reconstruction, selective editing and dramatised presentation rather than a transparent, independently verifiable account”, further stating that the documentary and the recent media story were “neither evidence-based nor supported by any real facts and are rather, more like a belated narrative-building exercise”.

“The repeated recycling of allegations, unsupported intelligence claims and official messaging reflects an attempt to melt the minds of their internal audience through a chain of coordinated narratives in an attempt to offset their humiliating defeat,” the ministry stated.

The ministry further noted that the Times of India report fit a “familiar state-sponsored terrorism narrative” and India’s “established playbook”, selectively “fabricating false pretences, presenting allegations as facts, and then building a predetermined narrative around them”.

“This is narrative engineering through distraction, deflection and disinformation, not fact-based journalism. Unverified claims should be scrutinised, not amplified,” the ministry said.

Read More: Pakistan rejects India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ claims as baseless, provocative

On August 18, the military’s media wing rejected an Indian documentary on Operation Sindoor, accusing Indian content creators of distorting history and presenting a “highly dramatised, coloured and factually inaccurate” account of the military operation.

In a statement, the military’s media wing said that more than a year after Marka-e-Haq, India had refused to face what it described as the reality of the conflict and instead sought to portray the outcome in a manner acceptable domestically.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the documentary featured senior Indian political and military leadership and relied on selectively edited interviews, emotional narration and cinematic, Bollywood-style reconstructions to alter facts and rewrite the operational outcome.

“For its lack of nuance and seriousness, the documentary can be characterised as a tragedy and a comedy at the same time,” the ISPR said.

It said the documentary’s narrative contained “fundamental contradictions” that exposed what it called a belated attempt to manufacture a domestically palatable version of events.