ISPR slams Indian documentary as propaganda projecting “military blunder” as success

WEB DESK: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has rejected an Indian documentary on “Operation Sindoor,” saying India has “cobbled together a ‘propaganda’ video to project a military blunder as a successful endeavour,” more than a year after Marka-e-Haq.

The first part of the two-part documentary Declassified: Operation Sindoorwas was aired on Discovery Channel India and Discovery+ on August 15. The film has been endorsed by Indian UAV manufacturers Raphe mPhibr.

In a statement, ISPR said India had produced “a highly dramatised, coloured and factually inaccurate account” of the operation, packaged as a documentary featuring senior Indian political and military leadership, and said the production relied on “selectively edited interviews, emotional narration and cinematic Bollywood style reconstruction” to alter established facts and rewrite the operational outcome. It said the documentary could be characterised as “a tragedy and a comedy at the same time” for its lack of nuance and seriousness.

ISPR said the documentary contained “fundamental contradictions” that exposed what it called a belated attempt to manufacture a domestically palatable version of events. It pointed to the documentary’s attempt to link an address by Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir on April 16, 2025, to the Pahalgam incident of April 22, 2025, calling this an effort at “conjuring a conspiracy theory out of nothing.” It noted that India had separately claimed the three alleged perpetrators of Pahalgam were identified and eliminated on July 28, 2025, 82 days after the operation, while the documentary presented the operation itself as punishment for those responsible, and asked who India claims to have punished on May 7, 2025, if that were the case.

ISPR also disputed India’s claim of “100 percent mission success,” stating that Pakistan’s Armed Forces “successfully thwarted Indian aggression” during Marka-e-Haq and shot down eight military aircraft, before conducting Operation Bunyanum Marsoos using Fatah precision-guided rockets and missiles, PAF precision munitions, long-range loitering munitions and precision artillery against 26 military targets.

It said the documentary “further undermines its claim of clear Indian dominance,” noting that Indian military leadership acknowledged extensive Pakistani missile, drone and air activity, sustained engagements along the Line of Control, and the activation of Indian air-defence systems, admissions ISPR said were “difficult to reconcile” with the documentary’s portrayal of Pakistan being decisively defeated.

On the ceasefire, ISPR said the documentary’s own narration confirmed that hostilities ended through communication between the two DGMOs and an agreed cessation of military action, contradicting any portrayal of the operation as a unilateral Indian triumph, and noted that a cessation “facilitated by US” could not be repurposed as evidence of unconditional victory. It further said the documentary contradicted itself by emphasising escalation dominance while simultaneously claiming India had provided Pakistan an “exit window.”

ISPR said Pakistan “has no need to manufacture a narrative” around Marka-e-Haq, adding that the country remains committed to regional peace and stability while its Armed Forces are “fully prepared and capable” of defending its sovereignty. It warned that any future military misadventure would be met with “a firm, decisive and disproportionate response.”