- ISPR says India is trying to rewrite Marka-e-Haq instead of accepting defeat.
- Accuses India of using cinematic reconstruction to alter established facts.
- Military’s media wing strongly rejects India’s 100% mission success claim.
Pakistan’s armed forces have rejected India’s portrayal of its Operation Sindoor as a military success, accusing New Delhi of attempting to rewrite the outcome of Marka-e-Haq through a “highly dramatised” documentary and conceal the reality of its completely failed misadventure.
In a statement issued on August 17, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said India had refused to face the “harsh reality” more than a year after Marka-e-Haq and had instead sought to “colour history in her preferred hues”.
“More than a year after Marka-e-Haq, India refuses to face the harsh reality. Instead of conceding defeat in a failed venture, India has decided to colour history in her preferred hues,” ISPR said. Indian content creators, it added, had produced a “highly dramatised, coloured and factually inaccurate account” of so-called Operation Sindoor, packaged as a documentary featuring senior political and military leadership.
“For its lack of nuance and seriousness, the documentary can be characterised as a tragedy and a comedy at the same time,” the military’s media wing said, adding that selectively edited interviews, emotional narration and cinematic Bollywood-style reconstruction had been used to alter established facts and rewrite the operational outcome. The documentary’s account, it said, contained “fundamental contradictions”, exposing a belated attempt to manufacture a domestically palatable version of events.
The documentary attempts to establish a deliberate linkage between an address by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff on 16 April 2025 and the Pahalgam incident of 22 April 2025, “conjuring a conspiracy theory out of nothing”, ISPR said. India subsequently claimed that the three alleged perpetrators of Pahalgam were identified and eliminated on 28 July 2025, 82 days after so-called Operation Sindoor, yet the documentary presents the operation as the punishment for those responsible for Pahalgam.
“If the alleged perpetrators were eliminated on 28 July, India must explain, who it claims to have punished on 7 May 2025,” ISPR said.
The claim of “100% mission success” was equally detached from the operational record, the military’s media wing said. During Marka-e-Haq, Pakistan’s Armed Forces successfully thwarted Indian aggression and shot down 8 military aircraft, it said.
Pakistan subsequently conducted Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, employing Fatah precision-guided rockets & missiles, PAF precision munitions, long-range loitering munitions and precision artillery against 26 military targets, including facilities used to target Pakistani citizens, and entities involved in fomenting terrorism against Pakistan, ISPR said.
The documentary itself further undermines its claim of clear Indian dominance, the military’s media wing said, noting that Indian military leadership acknowledges extensive Pakistani missile, drone and air activity, sustained engagements along the Line of Control and the activation of Indian air-defence systems.
“Such admissions are difficult to reconcile with its repeated portrayal of Pakistan being decisively defeated,” ISPR added.
The documentary’s account of the cessation of hostilities was no less revealing, the military’s media wing said. Its own narration confirms that hostilities ended through communication between the two DGMOs and an agreed cessation of military action.
“This alone contradicts the attempt to portray Op Sindoor as a unilateral Indian military triumph,” ISPR said. “A cessation of hostilities, facilitated by the US, cannot subsequently be repurposed as evidence of unconditional victory.”
The documentary also contradicts itself on escalation dynamics, repeatedly emphasising surprise, precision, deep strikes and escalation dominance while simultaneously claiming that India deliberately limited the conflict and provided Pakistan an “exit window”.
“These competing claims expose the production as a carefully constructed domestic narrative rather than an objective military account,” ISPR said, adding, “India had not declassified the truth but had instead ‘cobbled together a propaganda video to project a military blunder as a successful endeavour ‘.”
It said no amount of cinematic reconstruction could change the chronology, erase aircraft losses, conceal military casualties, alter the military engagements that took place or convert a battlefield defeat into a self-proclaimed victory.
“Pakistan has no need to manufacture a narrative around Marka-e-Haq,” the military’s media wing stressed, adding that the operational record, battlefield evidence, diplomatic exchanges and India’s own subsequent statements speak for themselves and are widely acknowledged by the international community.
ISPR reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace and stability, while saying the Armed Forces of Pakistan remained fully prepared and capable of defending the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests.
“Any future military misadventure will be met with a firm, decisive and disproportionate response,” the military’s media wing warned, adding that no amount of “cinematic perjury” would be able to provide India with any face-saving.
