Daily Times

If Bollywood scriptwriters ever runs short of plot ideas, they need only turn to India’s propaganda playbook for inspiration. Take the recent killing of Mufti Shahmir, a Pakistani religious scholar shot dead inside a mosque during Ramadan. According to a growing chorus of Indian social media accounts, Mufti Shahmir wasn’t just a preacher, he was a jet-setting “Iran-based businessman” who orchestrated the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, India’s beloved spy.

In a single stroke, Mufti Shahmir a man known locally for his sermons on community harmony has been posthumously promoted to international espionage villain. Forget Bollywood; this is geopolitical fan fiction at its finest. By the logic of these claims, Mufti Shahmir was simultaneously a cleric in Balochistan, a tycoon in Iran, and a puppet master who outsmarted India’s entire intelligence apparatus.

Let’s talk about Kulbhushan Jadhav. The man India paints as a kidnapped innocent is, in fact, a convicted terrorist who was arrested in Balochistan in 2016. Jadhav didn’t wander into Pakistan by accident. He confessed, on camera, to working for India’s intelligence agency, RAW, and to funneling money and weapons to separatist groups. His capture was a rare public exposure of India’s covert destabilization campaigns on Pakistani soil. But now, years later, India wants the world to believe a random scholar from Balochistan masterminded Jadhav’s arrest? It’s nonsense, but nonsense with a purpose: to muddy the waters and absolve its proxies.

The truth is simpler and darker: a man of peace was killed by militants, likely funded by a neighbor playing a dangerous game.

Speaking of proxies, let’s address the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the militant group that proudly claimed responsibility for Shahmir’s killing. The BLA isn’t some misunderstood “freedom fighter” group. It’s a banned terrorist outfit with a well-documented history of targeting civilians, and as multiple investigations have shown a beneficiary of Indian funding and arms. India’s silence on the BLA’s role here is deafening. Instead, its propaganda machine has pivoted to a classic tactic: accuse the victim. By falsely linking Mufti Shahmir to Jadhav, India seeks to legitimize his murder and whitewash its own patronage of violence.

What’s most grotesque isn’t just the lies, it’s the context. Mufti Shahmir was killed in a mosque, during Ramadan. A month when even warring factions often pause hostilities. Yet the BLA, allegedly bankrolled by India, chose this moment to strike. The message is clear: no sanctuary is sacred, no moral line too stark for those fueled by foreign agendas.

This isn’t an isolated incident. From Lahore to Karachi, attacks linked to India-backed groups have targeted civilians for years. Each time, India’s playbook repeats: deny, deflect, and deploy troll armies to muddy the waters. Mufti Shahmir’s case is no different. By painting him as a spy, India aims to legitimize his killing and sanitize its own role.

The international community’s silence on India’s proxy wars is deafening. When a scholar is murdered in a mosque, and the perpetrator’s patron spins fairy tales to evade blame, it’s not just Pakistan’s concern, it’s a test of global conscience. Will the world continue to tolerate a nuclear-armed state outsourcing terrorism? Or will it finally demand answers about the BLA’s sponsors and Jadhav’s actual crimes?

Mufti Shahmir was no businessman. He wasn’t based in Iran. He was a religious scholar, a man whose life revolved around sermons, community service, and the quiet rhythms of faith in Balochistan. To inflate him into a shadowy transnational operative is not only absurd but grotesquely disrespectful. Imagine, for a moment, the moral bankruptcy required to weaponize a man’s death to twist his legacy into a pawn for geopolitical point-scoring. Mufti Shahmir’s death is a tragedy. But India’s absurd allegations insult the intelligence of anyone paying attention. The truth is simpler and darker: a man of peace was killed by militants, likely funded by a neighbor playing a dangerous game. No amount of creative storytelling can mask that.

The writer is a freelance Content Writer & Columnist. She can be reached at: rakhshandamehtab @gmail.com