Several fake accounts impersonating army officers from India and Pakistan have sprung up on Twitter over the past week amid rising tensions between both the countries over Kashmir.
A Twitter account named Lt. Asimuddin Zamal (@LtAsimZamal) tweeted that he is resigning with 100 rangers of his battalion.
He further claimed that the Imran Khan government was forcing the Pakistan army to violate human rights in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Balochistan.
Tweet Click here to view an archive.
The tweet gained around 1,800 tweets and around 3,000 likes on Twitter while writing this article.
LtAsimZamal Twitter profile Click here to view an archive of @LtAsimZamal profile.
The account was created in June 2019, and has around 10 tweets which are sexually explicit in nature.
Sexually explicit language
Twitter archive of the sexually explicit tweets and replies.
A reverse image search of the profile picture used by this account shows that the picture is of Pakistan's General Director of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISI) Asim Saleem Bajwa.
Comparison between both account Click here to view Bajwa's profile.
The image has been picked up from Bajwa's Facebook photos.
The Twitter account appeared to be in retaliation to two other fake accounts that were posting misinformation directed towards India.
Fake Indian and Pakistani Colonel accounts Last week, a tweet from another Twitter account named Col Vijay Acharya with the handle name (@Archeie65), had gone viral.
In the tweet, the account claimed that he is Col Vijay Acharya from the Indian Army and he has decided to resign as Pakistan had killed 25 Indian soldiers of his unit.
The tweet that had gone viral on August 16 Click here to view an archive of this account.
The Twitter a/c had joined recently in August 2019 Identical Twitter accounts with the same name and content The same caption and image was tweeted by another Twitter handle (@acharyaCol) claiming to be Col Vijay Acharya.
Second fake account with the name Vijay Acharya Subsequently, both the accounts, @Archeie65 and @AcharyaCol were suspended by Twitter.
@Archeie65 suspended by Twitter
Col Acharya: I was informed that someone was impersonating me on Twitter BOOM got in touch with Colonel Vijay Acharya who was impersonated. Colonel Acharya confirmed to BOOM that he had retired in March, 2019, and that he has a Twitter account which is now dormant. But Colonel Acharya refused to share the details of his personal Twitter handle with BOOM.
"On August 16, I received a call from a close associate informing me that someone was impersonating me on Twitter. I opened Twitter and saw that my photos were being misused by different fake accounts, and I reported those accounts," said Colonel Acharya.
"Three photos of mine were being misused, one in which I'm standing with my daughter, second one where I am standing alone, and a third in which I have a helmet on," added Colonel Acharya.
Besides, there were no news reports on Pakistan killing 25 Indian soldiers at the Line Of Control (LOC), as claimed by these Twitter accounts.
In retaliation, an account named Shahid (@Shahid09873) claimed that the Indian army had killed 50 Pakistani soldiers which has forced him to seek early retirement.
@Shahid09873 tweet The account was recently created in August 2019, and was later on suspended by Twitter.
The fake a/c joined this August
Dead Pakistani solider's picture misused A reverse image search showed that that the account had used an image of a Pakistan Army Colonel Shahid who died after falling into a ditch in October 2016 as reported by Daily Pakistan.
News article on the incident There were no news reports on India killing 50 Pakistani soldiers at the Line Of Control (LOC) which was claimed by the Twitter account.
