Knowing India’s Enemies
Under the guise of Buddhist monk, Pakistani ISI incites communal riot in India
Through an account on ‘X’ having over 19.6 thousand followers, using the fake identity of a Buddhist monk namely Ashin Wirathu that claims to be hailing from Ma-Soe-Yein Monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar, Pakistani spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) has been continuing vile attempts with the dangerous agenda of inciting communal riot in India.
On May 20, 2020, this account in a post said, “Read your literature, read the war techniques of your warriors, become strong to protect your people and the culture of nature. Eradicate the evil cult and establish peace”.
On June 17, 2024, criticizing Muslim Eid, this account in a post stated, “Bakrid is not a festival but a bloody and cruel Islamic ritual. Countless innocent Animals are sacrificed to superstition by Muslims. Bakrid should be banned to protect humanity and compassion”.
It may be mentioned here that a very large portion of the Pakistani populace call Eid Ul Azha as “Bakrid”.
Another post on the same day says, another post says, “If Islamic people oppress you then you do not need to appeal to anyone for your safety. You contact us, we have priority arrangements in three other countries outside Myanmar. Our secret groups are becoming active in Bangladesh, India & Britain. Islamists will regret their birth”. In the reply box of this post, a verified account named Wanderer retweeting a post from Salwan Momika wrote, “I will strongly suggest and recommend that you and Yati Narasimha Saraswati connect with each other”. Salwan Momika, who proclaims to be “Critic and thinker – atheist. I fight for a West free of Islam”, has been collecting donation using IBAN, Salwan Momika, LT123250015149259451; PayPal: salwanmomika; and buymeacoffee.com/salwanmomiu for its activities.
On June 15, 2024, Ashin Wirathu in a post, criticizing Kuki-Chin terrorists wrote, “A group of terrorists in Indian Army uniform with Chin Kukis have been caught on camera carrying out terrorist activities in our territory. I don’t understand whether the Indian Army selling its uniforms to terrorists or there are some traitors in it”.
In this post, an ‘X’ account named Anamika – which certainly is one of the many social media accounts operated by Pakistani ISI wrote, “Lol! Are we even surprised? Here are two videos to show how Indian army work together with Kuki Chin terrorists in Manipur, which shares a border with Myanmar. Indian army even makes their Casspir vehicles available to Kuki Chin terrorists. Regarding Indian army uniform, Kuki Chin terrorists wear it in Manipur. What you have posted has been exposed by us long back. Indian army is alleged to use KNA (B) and PDF for proxy war in Manipur”.
There also are dozens of comments on this post with the nefarious attempt of defaming the Indian Army.
Then on June 12, 2024, Ashin Wirathu attacked Hindu dharma by stating, “The idol is right but idol worship is misleading. Because by worshiping an idol you lose its qualities. This is the only problem, people have stopped learning from those marvels & are just expecting miracles from their idols. This is an insult of those whose idols you have made”. On the same day, in another post this ‘X’ account stated, “If instead of worshiping idols, you would have taken inspiration from them and made your life powerful great. Then there would have been greatness & excellence”.
On June 9, 2024, criticizing Rohingyas, this account stated, “The Rohingya are a suicidal Bengali muslim group created by Bangladesh. These are not normal humans but a group of murderers, thieves and rapists. If they are around you then your family is in danger”. On the same day, in another post it said, “If you have helped the Bangladeshi Rohingyas, then you are also a partner in their crimes”. And the third post said, “The countries that have sheltered the Bangladeshi Rohingya community are guilty of all the women who were raped, they are guilty of all the families whose innocent children were murdered, they are guilty of all those who were slaughtered by the Bangladeshi Rohingyas”.
From these three posts, the actual agenda and identity of “Ashin Wirathu” has been exposed. In addition to instigating communal riots, the key agenda of this account is to brand Rohingyas as citizens of Bangladesh, which actually has been a prime agenda of Myanmar’s military junta as well as Kuki-Chin terrorists. It also generates doubt, if Chinese intelligence also is at play alongside Pakistani ISI in spreading communal hatred in Bangladesh and India as well capitalize the Rohingya issue in pushing Bangladesh and Myanmar towards war. Most importantly, although this account publishes a series of posts against Islam as well as Rohingyas, there is nothing about persecution of Hindus in Pakistan. Instead, this account talks of persecution of Buddhists in Pakistan stating, “We are coming for Pakistan too. By the grace of Allah you are craving for food grains. By the glory of Buddha you will be freed from the bondage of Allah & poverty. We will restore Buddhism in Pakistan and then upgrade the Kaaba. The empty grounds of Kaaba will be good for yoga”.
In response to a post dated June 15, 2024 by “Ashin Wirathu” that said, “Mosques are not a place to pray to imaginary allah. These are houses built to capture land, hide weapons, prepare terrorism strategies and hide terrorists”, an ‘X’ user wrote, “This guy actually is Anurag Tiwari from Uttar Pradesh pretending to be a radical Myanmar Buddhist monk by using a pseudonym – Ashin Wirathu who has actually been writing against Kukis in Manipur. The name of the account in 2018 was @orianuragitiwari. Later he changed his handle name to @Anuragtiwari. In 2019 he changed his name to @ThePaapi and then in 2020 to @WirathuAshin. He is banned on Facebook”.
As a counterterrorism specialist, in my opinion, this ‘X’ account that uses a fake profile photo either is operated from an IT cell of Pakistani ISI or through an agent of this spy agency in India. Without doubt, this fake account is not owned by any Buddhist monk.
(Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning journalist, writer, research-scholar, counterterrorism specialist and Editor, Blitz, a newspaper publishing from Bangladesh since 2003. He regularly writes for local and international newspapers)
