Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Saturday that a Pakistani fisherman was arrested by the Indian coast guard and forced to perform tasks for the neighboring country’s intelligence agency.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with Minister of State for Home Affairs Talal Chaudhary, he said the Indian media was creating a false narrative following May’s four-day conflict with Pakistan.
He said law enforcement had recently arrested a fisherman named Ijaz Mallah, who used to go deep sea fishing.
“In September this year, when he was fishing, he was arrested by the Indian coast guard and after this arrest, he was taken to an undisclosed location and coerced and forced to perform some tasks for the Indian intelligence agency,” he said.
“They told him that he would be compensated and that if he did not comply, he would have to remain in prison for two or three years,” he said.
“So this ordinary fisherman was finally freed by the Indian intelligence agency and sent to Pakistan with the task of getting certain things… which included uniforms of Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Army and Sindh Rangers,” the minister added.
“He was tasked with procuring uniforms with certain name tags, and certain accessories and measurements because this was part of a larger plan by the Indian intelligence agency to launch a propaganda war against Pakistan,” Tarar said, showing photographs of items supposedly recovered from the fisherman on a screen to the side.
The minister said Pakistan’s intelligence agencies were well equipped to deal with any situation and put the fisherman in question under surveillance when he tried to acquire the items.
“While he was under surveillance, our law enforcement agencies were fully alert and on his trail. He was also asked to procure Pakistani currency, cigarettes, matchboxes, lighters and specifically procure Zong SIM cards,” he said.
“He got all these items and was heading to India when law enforcement agencies stopped him at sea, arrested him and took these items into custody,” the minister said.
“This is part of a larger plan by India to defame Pakistan and use such elements of propaganda and disinformation, and we have been very active in countering disinformation and misinformation by the Indian media and state,” he said.
“This is a glaring example of the extent to which the Indian state is going to defame Pakistan because it is not able to digest Pakistan’s successes,” he said.
“So this is the kind of propaganda war they resort to and detailed investigations have been carried out,” he said, adding that Mallah had also confessed to his crimes. The minister then proceeded to play a video of the fisherman, in which the man said that in August 2025 he was detained by the Indian coast guard while going fishing.
More to follow
