The Pakistan Army has long deployed less than admirable methods to bleed India with a thousand cuts. From funding and supporting terror activity in Kashmir, to engaging in spreading propaganda and misinformation on social media and in the mainstream media at large. It has often been seen that Pakistan has also indulged in ‘honey trapping’ officers of the Indian Army in attempts to extract information from the soldiers.
Now, a curious job opening seemed to be posted on the website of the Fatima Jinnah Women University. The requirements of the job were rather curious.
To quote from the website, the job posting said, “Military owned media house is looking for a Social Media Specialist (FEMALE) to attract and interact with targeted virtual communities and networks users”.
When checked, the official website of Fatima Jinnah Women’s University indeed has this unique job opening posted on their official page.
There are two aspects of this job posting that are interesting.
- That Pakistani Army owns a media house
- They want a ‘female’ Social Media Specialist to ‘attract and interact’ with ‘targeted virtual communities’ and ‘network users’.
While the rest of the requirements are rather mundane, it is intriguing that a “media company” owned by the Pakistan Military in conducting this exercise.
Firstly, it is hilarious in itself that a media company would be owned by an Army. The Pakistan Army seems to indulge in all activities other than soldiering for their nation. The Army in Pakistan has massive commercial interests ranging in billions of dollars, from running media houses to manufacturing breakfast cereal.
Secondly, considering Pakistan’s history in indulging in ‘honey-trapping’, the job opening posted by the university for a military-run media house becomes even more significant. The keywords used in the job opening appear to fit the bill for the same.
Honey-trapping in an enemy exercise where the enemy nation tries to lure Army officers with catfish accounts or female accounts on social media, or otherwise, into a relationship. Thereafter, they subtly proceed to extract sensitive information that can then be used by the enemy nation against the target nation.
Recently, Army Jawan Ravinder Kumar Jadav was arrested by the police for leaking sensitive information to ISI. He was allegedly honey-trapped by a woman who posed as a captain in the nursing corps of Indian Army. The woman was suspected to be an agent of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and had reportedly honey-trapped at least two personnel and an army aspirant in the last 15 months.
The investigation had revealed that this woman had approached the men she trapped on Facebook through fake profiles. The suspected ISI agent used Indian numbers for WhatsApp through which she interacted with the three men.
Recently, the Indian Army had identified 100 men who they suspected had already been compromised and had passed on sensitive information to ISI after getting honey-trapped. These men were put under intense surveillance.
The Army believes there is a pro-active enemy conspiracy to use social media to profile, segregate and trap personnel in uniform and seek details which compromise national security.
Recently, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had instructed Army personnel to exit WhatsApp groups. In view of the recent reports of a woman linked to Pakistan’s ISI agency luring and honey-trapping Army personnel, the Army has brought in measures to regulate the use of social media.
While ISI and the Pakistan Army indulges in regular propaganda, this job posting on the website of the Fatima Jinnah Women University, which is funded by the Punjab Government (Pakistan) might just be another attempt at recruiting women for honey-trapping Indian officers.
