The press conference held by ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Shaikh Rasheed on Wednesday was a reminder of how Indian agencies are hard at work in their bid to isolate Pakistan. Ever since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, these efforts have been stepped up.

In the past month or so, Pakistan has been accused of the most ludicrous allegations, all of which have appeared on international media without prior verification. The accusations of sending over militias to conquer Afghanistan and the presence of SSG commandos and Pakistani drones to help the Taliban in the battle for Panjshir were all laughable, and yet many ‘policy experts’ and journalists were parroting these claims as if they were fact. The ridiculous and completely fabricated ‘sanction Pakistan’ hashtag campaign online is further evidence of this.

All of these attacks were staved off successfully by the government through key interviews where everyone including the Prime Minister clarified that there was no truth to such nonsense. However, the cancellation of the New Zealand tour based on a completely made up threat alert issued through a VPN traced back to India only shows that this is a constant battle that will require for us to be more proactive in staving off the attacks.

The government has announced that it will approach Interpol for a more detailed investigation. This is the right step to take. But on our own part, we must develop an improved channel of keeping up communications with visiting delegations—both in sport and beyond. Alongside this, creating a verifiable system for sharing threats, with watermarks and designated emails to prevent scams must become a priority.

We have been engaged in this fight without any let up from India. It is important to learn from what transpired and ensure there are no repeat incidents.