False flag operations, deliberate acts designed to appear as if carried out by another group or country, have long been used by states to justify military aggression or suppress internal dissent. In the case of India, especially regarding Kashmir, there exists a consistent pattern in which such operations or manipulated narratives have been used to shift blame onto Pakistan. These actions not only distort facts on the ground but also serve to delegitimize the genuine political struggle of the Kashmiri people.
As a historical example, it is sometimes said that the massacre committed on the Chittisinghpura population in March 2000 constitutes a striking illustration. Just before the arrival of the U.S. President Bill Clinton in India, 35 Sikhs were shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir. Immediately and subsequently the blame was directed towards Pakistan-sponsored militants but there was evidence later that it could have been staged by Indian agencies. At the purest moment, Indian troops shot five men and wrongfully labeled them as terrorists. The official version was seriously questioned in investigations conducted by human rights activists and journalists but no one was accountable.
The other significant attack was the Indian parliament attack of December 2001 causing rigorous tensions between India and Pakistan. There were rapid, though unproven, allegations against Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (Pakistan-supported groups), but subsequent investigation suggests inconsiderations with the investigation. Indian security officials such as S.M. Mushrif and others posed the question that the attack was manipulated or even staged by Indian agencies to gain a reason to deploy colossal military forces along the border with Pakistan in a plan known as Operation Parakram. The political agenda was obvious: set up Pakistan in a bad light and build up nationalism on home front.
The same situation revealed the contradictions within India when around 68 people, most of whom were Pakistani nationals were killed in the Samjhauta Express bombings in 2007. First accusation was yet again placed on Pakistani militants. But it was later found out by the National investigation agency of India (NIA) that the bombing was committed by a Hindu extremist group, Abhinav Bharat with connections to active officials in the Indian army including one Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit. This discovery damaged the accepted line of the government and the issue of how radicalized the ideology of some part of the Indian establishment could be.
Maybe the most politically significant act of alleged false flag operation was the Pulwama attack of February 2019 where 40 Indian paramilitary fought in a suicide bombing through an attack by the Kashmir militants who are members of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Pakistan-based militants were blamed in the attack and the assassin event resulted in Indian retaliatory airstrikes in Balakot, one of the most threatening military escalation in recent history. But there were doubts raised seriously. Adil Ahmad Dar, the attacker, was a local youth who previously had been tortured and harassed by the Indian security forces. Indian opposition as well as Rahul Gandhi asked the question whether the attack was any political convenience to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ostensibly because it took place just ahead of general elections. The popularity of the BJP rose and it won with a landslide within four weeks.
Another turning point was in August 2019 when Article 370 was revoked which led to the removal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. India went on with a months-long communications black out, arrested thousands of political leaders and filled the region with troops. Within several months thereafter, Indian security claimed to have killed various so-called Pakistani terrorists, during the border infiltrations or encounters. Much of these procedures did not have an independent verification however. The media access was denied; the human rights observers were restrained and subsequent reports indicated that most of the encounters were staged or made use of planted weapons.
Due to more international scrutiny the approach towards false flags has evolved whereby India does not focus solely on physical false flag events but also digital and psychological false flags. In 2020-2023, EU DisinfoLab has revealed a huge patch of pro-India disinformation under the guise of fake media outlets and NGOs that is situated to influence the international opinion against Pakistan and to construct a Kashmir as a terror problem. These media have a tendency in more often than not re-labeling local opposition in terms of “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism” further skewing actual political ground. Growing intolerance to alternative narratives and foreign criticism has also been seen in India in 2023 when the government banned a 2022 BBC documentary on the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Gujarat riots in 2002.
At the beginning of 2024, several leaks in Indian official intelligence by Indian whistleblowers hinted that at least some security services had carried out special operations ahead of the election, with the goal of renewing nationalistic sentiments. These comprise ingredients of planned fake cross-border threats before the 2024 presidential elections. The fact that the elections were held without such incidence can be ignored because the mere threat showed that false flag operations are ingrained in politics.
The violence and suppression are revolving in Kashmir. There was massive uproar caused by the extrajudicial execution of three civilians in Shopian in 2025 later purported to be militants. Independent reporters revealed that the attack was fake and that the casualties were police officers who were workers with no real affiliations in militancy. This echoed previous occurrences such as the 2020 Amshopora fake encounter, which confirmed more of the pattern.
These are also two functions: to justify excessive militarization, to demonize most opposition as extremist, to fight democratic expression in Kashmir, and to gather the Indian voter in defense of the national security rhetoric. The mainstream media of India is instrumental and functions rather enabling most times as it repeats the governmental claims. In television discussions, any speaker who disagrees, opposition leader or critic is labeled as being anti-national, and thus the discussion, at the level of democracy, is stifled and mob rule grows.
In the meantime, Pakistan experiences international pressure following every of such incident, whether it is proven later to be debunked or not. The pattern shows how the false flag operations and the control of the media involve not only internal control within domestic affairs but also with international narratives influence and the real problems of people in Kashmir are disregarded.
To sum up, the supposed history of false flag operations in India casts major ethical, legal, and political concerns. Every event does not have a conclusive answer, some of the accusations might be entirely supported, but the frequency of patterns, testimonies of whistleblowers and subsequent political benefits require critical examination. Unless there is a real desire to have peace in South Asia, such narratives need to be challenged by both the regional actors as well as the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice and give the voice of the Kashmiri people centrality in any dialogue.
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