Set up on border a decade ago, clearly heard in J&K, Punjab: Study

To step up psychological warfare in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, Pakistan has setup at least 15 round-the-clock FM stations to hurl the choicest invectives at India.

Even some underground and pro-militant radio stations are also operating on the other side of the border and can be clearly heard in Poonch, Rajouri, Nowshera, RS Pura and Jammu city, besides the border areas of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur and Fazilka in Punjab.

The operation of radio stations by Pakistan has been documented in a post-doctoral research conducted by Rajesh Bhat, who is currently working in the Policy Division of the Directorate of All India Radio, New Delhi.

The research titled, “Radio Kashmir – In Times of Peace & War’’, which is yet to be released, mentions that Pakistan was not only indiscriminately firing at Indian forward posts and civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB), its electronic media had stepped up psychological war in the northern states.

The study also reveals how Radio Pakistan had meticulously planned a coverage to rouse an anti-India sentiment in some communities in Jaipur, Kanpur, Bikaner, Ambala, Saharanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Farrukhabad and parts of Nepal.

It also mentioned how Radio Pakistan and ‘Azad Kashmir Radio’ acted as a bridge between the infiltrators and their masters and helped establish communication channels for them. The messages were mostly in Gojri, Pahari, Urdu and Punjabi, spoken on both side of the LoC and even in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

The study reveals that most of the Pakistani radio stations heard in J&K and Punjab devoted a good chunk of time to religious broadcasts.

“Pakistani Radio Stations — FM 101 Sialkot, Mast FM 103 Gujranwala, Radio Buraq Sialkot, Voice of Kashmir 95.8, Radio Swat Network 100 FM and Radio Buraq FM 104-105 MHz, Peshawar, were clearly heard in the Jammu division spitting venom against India,” the study said.

Interspersed With Bollywood Music

The broadcasts against India are interspersed with Bollywood and Punjabi music to befool and brainwash J&K listeners, who sometimes mistake them for Indian stations

The full-fledged radio stations are functioning in the Mirpur, Muzaffarbad, Kotli, Trarkhal, Rawalakote and Haveli areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Sialkot, Gujaranwalla, Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar areas of Pakistan for the past one decade

Azad Kashmir Radio in Muzaffarabad and Trarkhal and Sada-e-Hurriyat-e-Kashmir wooing people living in border areas of India.