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“In times of war, truth is the first casualty.”
-Aeschylus-
The recent violent attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir has once again revealed the fragility of truth in conflict narratives. Media reports announced that three Pakistani “terrorists” had been killed by Indian forces shortly after the assault. Yet, beyond the government’s declarations, no names, affiliations, weapons, or forensic confirmations have been made public. The case was closed before any real investigation could begin.
In an atmosphere where evidence is sparse but rhetoric is thick, the official version remains unverifiable. What might be claimed as a counterterror success risks becoming yet another encounter story – a tale that fits the dominant political script more than it reflects the facts on the ground.
This is not a minor oversight. It points to a deeper erosion of institutional credibility. Were these suspects identified independently? Were neutral observers present? Was any third-party verification carried out? Or is this simply the latest episode in a long series of extrajudicial killings masquerading as anti-terror victories?
If this were a legitimate, transparent operation, these answers would already be before the public. But in India’s current climate of hyper-nationalism, it is truth—not terrorism—that has been taken hostage.
Manufactured Consent: The Role of Media in Conflict
The Indian media, for the most part, has abdicated its responsibility to scrutinise. It no longer asks uncomfortable questions of power; it echoes official press notes, often word-for-word. Kashmir, already stripped of its autonomy and saturated by military presence, is also witnessing a steady collapse of independent journalism.
According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, India ranks 159th out of 180 countries. Laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and a climate of surveillance have turned journalists into targets. In Kashmir, reporters have been arrested, harassed, and censored. This is no longer a mere “press freedom issue”—it is the silencing of democratic accountability.
This decline is not happening in isolation. The story of Kashmir’s “encounters” is riddled with disturbing precedents. The Amshipora fake encounter of 2020 is still fresh in public memory: three labourers from Rajouri were shot dead and labelled terrorists, until an internal probe exposed the truth. A rogue Army captain was court-martialled, but the deeper system of impunity remains intact.
The 2009 Shopian rape and murder case, and the Pathribal and Machil fake encounters, further underscore how routinely false narratives have been used to sanitise extrajudicial violence. Each time, official stories were accepted with little resistance – until civil society and victims’ families uncovered otherwise. The question that must be asked: how many more unverified “encounters” will be quietly absorbed into the bloodstream of a nation’s conscience?
The Political Economy of Conflict
This theatre of silence and spectacle is sustained by a larger political economy: the deep militarisation of the Indian state and its long-standing hostility with Pakistan. Every time a “terrorist” is killed or a cross-border firing incident occurs, the media pivots into patriotic mode. Every dissenting voice is branded anti-national.
Yet, the real costs of these hostilities are seldom calculated. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India spent $76.6 billion on defence in 2023, ranking third globally. Pakistan spent $10.3 billion in the same period. Both countries continue to invest in arms while neglecting public healthcare, education, and rural infrastructure.
Analysts from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and global think tanks have estimated that a 30-day full-scale conflict between India and Pakistan could result in a combined loss of over $500 billion, with India alone losing up to $400 billion. This figure is not simply a number—it represents children left without classrooms, patients without hospitals, and millions left hungry. What will both nations feed their poor? Bombs for breakfast?
Reimagining Peace: The Time Is Now
Despite decades of mistrust, India and Pakistan have been on the cusp of peace multiple times. The Manmohan Singh – Pervez Musharraf backchannel dialogue (2004–2007) had proposed soft borders, joint mechanisms in Kashmir, and demilitarisation. But jingoism, political turnovers, and sabotage aborted that possibility.
This time, we must not allow the same failure. But we must also learn from it. Kashmiri voices—civil and political, from both sides of the Line of Control—must be central to any peace-building process. Kashmir cannot be a pawn in a strategic game between two nuclear-armed states. It is home to people who bleed, grieve, and dream like any of us.
International mediation must be rethought as well. The United States, with its entanglement in South Asia’s security dynamics, cannot serve as a neutral broker. Instead, countries from the Global South—such as South Africa, Brazil, or Indonesia—must be encouraged to facilitate negotiations, drawing on their own experiences of post-colonial reconciliation and peace processes. The UN Human Rights Council’s 2018 and 2019 reports on Kashmir explicitly call for inclusive dialogue, a plea India rejected with dismissal instead of deliberation.
Journalism as Peace-making
The media must reimagine its role – not as stenographers of the state, but as midwives of justice. It must investigate rather than amplify. Question rather than conclude. It must embody, not just report, democratic values.
Cross-border peace platforms such as the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), South Asian feminist peace delegations, and people-to-people diplomacy efforts are the real architects of reconciliation. Their efforts must be elevated and supported.
Because peace will not arrive through military logic. It will come when we have the courage to tell the truth, even when that truth disrupts the storylines of state propaganda.
Dismantling the War Machine
What we are confronting in the aftermath of Pahalgam is not merely a lapse in information. It is a systemic production of ignorance—a machinery that feeds war by starving truth. When states thrive on spectacle and secrecy, it becomes the duty of citizens and journalists to resist.
As someone who has witnessed the slow erosion of democracy in India and the brutal occupation in Kashmir, I believe peace is not a utopian dream. It is an existential necessity. And truth-telling is where peace begins.
Let this moment be one of protest. A protest for truth, for peace, and for a journalism that stands on the side of the people, not the powerful.
The author, Ranjan Solomon is a political commentator and rights advocate based in Goa, India.
Citations and References
- Reporters Without Borders. 2024 World Press Freedom Index. https://rsf.org/en/index
- JKCCS & Amnesty International. “If They Are Dead, Tell Us”: The Disappeared in Kashmir. Amnesty Report, 2011
- SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. India and Pakistan Military Spending, 2023. https://sipri.org
- UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Reports on the Human Rights Situation in Kashmir, 2018 & 2019
- Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). War Simulation Studies: Economic Costs of Conflict, 2020
- The Hindu. Army officer court-martialled in Amshipora fake encounter case, 202
- Scroll.in. Shopian rape and murder case: Timeline and court response, 2009.
- Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy. https://pipfpd.net
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.