The Indian Army has issued a statement over the visit of General Raymond Thomas, Commander of United States Special Operations Command. He met with the Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat and discussed matters of regional security.

The statement reads, “Both the Generals deliberated on the developing regional security environment, issue of global terrorism and Pakistan’s continued support to terrorism was also discussed. Acknowledging India’s role in peace and stability in the region, gen Raymond emphasized on the need for further military cooperation in the field of technology and military to military exchanges between the two countries.”

The statement reads further, “In the current scenario, the Indian Army remains fully prepared for emerging challenges. In the last three weeks, a disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital media has increased. All ranks have been well sensitized of these disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit & deception of the terror sponsors.”

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The last sentence of the statement is remarkable here as it refers to Pakistan directly as ‘terror sponsors’. The digital misinformation campaign mentioned in the statement likely refers to the propaganda video of Wing Commander Abhinandan released by the Pakistanis before his release and the recent epidemic of Fake News being spread even by journalists and Congress politicians which claimed that the 21 Sikh Regiment had refused to fight for India.

In recent weeks, there have been considerable tensions between the two countries in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror Attack. India responded to the act of terrorism by Pakistan backed terrorists with airstrikes within Pakistani territory that decimated terror camps.

The airstrikes were followed by Pakistan’s attempt to attack Indian military installations which resulted in the loss of an F16 jet for them which was brought down by a MiG-21 Bison. Tensions between the countries appear to have de-escalated since then although ceasefire violations continue to occur at the border.