4 min readJul 3, 2026 07:47 PM IST
First published on: Jul 3, 2026 at 07:47 PM IST
Military and intelligence agencies often deploy a tactic called PSYOP — structured disinformation campaigns aimed at creating suspicion, confusion and discord among enemy ranks. Recent propaganda about a fictitious Track 2 dialogue between India and Pakistan at Colombo appears to be a classic example of PSYOP unleashed by interested parties. It was lapped up by sections of mainstream and social media in India, without checking the story’s veracity.
A prestigious London-based think tank has been hosting an annual South Asia conference for more than a decade, in which scholars, former diplomats, military and intelligence agency veterans, and occasionally politicians and serving officials from countries in South Asia and beyond, including the US, the UK and China, participate. These conferences are like any other academic events hosted by think tanks. As Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri has clarified, they are not part of Track 2 diplomacy. The latter is a bilateral dialogue track that has the tacit approval of the governments. It doesn’t involve half a dozen countries. The conference in Colombo that was in the news was a structured annual event with participation of representatives from the US, the UK, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. I addressed one session and left.
While the Pakistani side seemed to be eager for a formal engagement with India, that sentiment wasn’t reciprocated. The reasons were unambiguous. Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke a six-year long diplomatic freeze by inviting his Pakistan counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, to his oath-taking ceremony in 2014. He made an impromptu visit to Lahore a year later, extending an olive branch to Pakistan. But our neighbour responded with the Uri and Pulwama terrorist attacks. Pakistan ended up paying a heavy price when the Modi government declared curtains down on most forms of direct engagement with Islamabad.
India’s refusal to engage frustrates Pakistan. Islamabad feels belittled when India engages with several other countries but disregards its overtures. Under Modi’s leadership, India has joined the big league and is no longer interested in being re-hyphenated with its failed western neighbour. The Pahalgam terror attack, in contrast, demonstrated that there is no change in Pakistan’s policy of using terrorism as a state instrument against India. After Pahalgam, India launched Operation Sindoor and successfully took out terror camps deep inside Pakistani territory. Modi declared that such responses will be the “new normal” for India in dealing with Pakistan – this holds even now.
In October last year, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed at the UNGA that he wanted to “win peace” with India. But the experience on the ground is otherwise. There have been no major terror attacks in the country after Pahalgam. But the credit for that goes to the proactive counter-terror operations by India’s security and intelligence establishment. Pakistan continues to be a hotbed of global terror infrastructure. Saifullah Kasuri, commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba and the mastermind of the Pahalgam attack, continues to roam freely and issues repeated threats that his outfit “would never back down from the Kashmir mission”. Another terrorist outfit, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, went on a recruiting spree last year, hours before an India-Pakistan cricket match in Dubai.
There were at least five attempts last year to infiltrate terrorists from across the border – they were foiled by our security forces, who killed eight terrorists. In other operations, 13 more terrorists were neutralised. Two apprehended terrorists, carrying enhanced encryption capabilities to evade detection, revealed that their handlers in Pakistan directed them to stay on for prolonged periods and try to radicalise youth and induct them into terror ranks. Online magazines like TRR (The Revolutionary Resurgence) and ZUV (The Soul of Resistance), run by terror outfits, whose IP addresses were tracked to Pakistan by Indian agencies, spread anti-India propaganda and promote separatist narratives in Kashmir.
After brokering an unstable truce between America and Iran, Pakistan is seeking to project itself as a champion of peace. India has seen its true colours and firmly adheres to its principle — “talks and terrorism cannot go together”. That has been its consistent message at all forums, including in Colombo.
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
In October last year, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed at the UNGA that he wanted to “win peace” with India. But the experience on the ground is otherwise. 
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