The India Pakistan Conflict 2025 has dominated headlines across the world for the past one week. Ever since India hit nine terrorism infrastructure sites on the night of 7th May, people on both sides of the border have been glued to their laptop and phone screens in anticipation of the outbreak of war. While the conflict has ended with a tacit agreement between two sides to stop hostilities, discussions on social media have not.
I spent the better part of the past week trawling through the Pakistani sections of social media. It provided me with an interesting insight into Pakistan’s existing domestic political dynamic. So, here’s what I discovered.
No unanimous consensus on who won the India Pakistan Conflict
The Pakistani Armed Forces, its political establishment and its mainstream media are unanimous in their opinion: Pakistan has comprehensively defeated India. Of course, in order to maintain their pretence, they are inventing all manners of lies that would make the courtesans of Heeramandi blush. Their fictional tales have also been bought hook, line and sinker by the overwhelming majority of their population.
But the consensus is not as strong as they would like it to be. There are journalists and intellectuals with a huge following on social media who are refusing to buy what the Pakistani Political Establishment is selling. And all these dissenters tend to belong to the same political camp. They are all supporters of the now imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The national icon continues to enjoy huge popularity despite the allegations of corruption that have been slapped against him by the courts. His supporters believed that these are frivolous cooked up allegations that have been conjured by Pakistani Army to remove the threat he presents to them. The conspiratorial inclinations that Khan’s imprisonment inspired among his followers has seeped into the manner in which they view their Army’s narratives about the India Pakistan Conflict too.
Imran Khan supporters refuse to believe the Pakistan Army’s version of events
The perception of the Pakistan Army among Imran Khan supporters had sunk to irredeemable depths the moment he was imprisoned. Even the fervour of nationalism has failed to bridge the gap between the two. Haider Mehdi, a former officer in the Pakistani Army, is openly abusing his former employers on his YouTube Channel that has over 540,000 subscribers. The language that he has used is extremely inappropriate, to put it mildly.
WATCH: A Pakistani EXPOSES Pakistan Army!
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) May 12, 2025
"Who is the British's B*tch?"
"The Pakistan Army is a brothel that births prostitutes!" pic.twitter.com/4RJo0VwYCB
During the same conversation, Haider Mehdi and his guest Ziad Khan severely question the establishment narrative. Their primary point of concern is that India has kept the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, then how can Pakistan claim that they have won?
WATCH: A Pakistani explains how PAKISTAN lost decisively!
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) May 12, 2025
Ziad Khan describes how Pakistan accepted the Ceasefire unconditionally without talking about the Indus Water Treaty!
He says Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and Chenab have dried up and India doesn't need to fire missiles to win! pic.twitter.com/468CSIEEV5
It is widely recognised that the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is one of Pakistan’s nuclear thresholds. However, its National Security Establishment did not even discuss the IWT before accepting a ceasefire. This is why many on the other side of the border believe that it’s unacceptable to consider it a victory for Pakistan.
Journalist Ahmad Noorani on the India Pakistan Conflict
Ahmad Noorani, a Pakistan born journalist based in the United States, has also highlighted the fact that Pakistan accepted a ceasefire by meekly surrendering on the IWT.
Pakistan was threatening to strike India with nuclear weapons if the Indus Water Treaty was suspended. Yet, they were desperate for a ceasefire even when IWT is suspended.
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) May 11, 2025
People of Pakistan are seeing through the false claims of their Army. pic.twitter.com/oIAT297Srr
Another aspect that Noorani has emphasised upon is that India has provided ample evidence of the targets that the Armed Forces have hit in Pakistan. However, no such proofs have surfaced from the Pakistani side.
WATCH: This Pakistani journalist just EXPOSED how Pakistan has provided no evidence of its claims and how India has SHOWN ALL EVIDENCE of damage to Pakistani assets.
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) May 12, 2025
He also confirmed that a huge number of Pakistanis have died in the Indian attack! pic.twitter.com/va975cKKRM
Noorani has also confirmed that there has been a lot of damage in Pakistan from the Indian missile attack, both, in terms of material destruction and human casualties.
The scenes on X, formerly Twitter
X is one of the most highly preferred modes of news consumption during crisis. The India Pakistan Conflict was no exception. Traffic on X skyrocketed after the outbreak of violence across the border. In Pakistan, the mood remains jubilant due to state propaganda. However, cracks are beginning to emerge on the fringes of it.
There are numerous anonymous accounts on X with significant following that have refused to accepted the state narratives on the results of the war. The reactions range from anger regarding the status of the IWT to the meek acceptance of the ceasefire. There is good reason to believe that, like Ahmad Noorani, a lot of these accounts are run by Pakistanis who have settled abroad.
One X account, which calls itself ‘Nemesis’, mocked Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir for accepting the ceasefire.
Muhammad Faisal, an international mediator based out of the European Union, mocked the fact that Pakistan accepted the ceasefire because they were forced into it by the USA.
One anonymous account, that calls itself Baba Kodda, ranted that at least 60 civilians were killed in the Indian missile attack (the claim remains unverified as yet). He further went on to assert that planes at the targeted Pakistani air bases were destroyed and missiles were fired at more than 16 Pakistani cities.
He concluded, “We don’t need to believe any country’s claim to know who won. Time will confirm it, just like we claimed victory in the 1965 War, but in 1971 it was discovered that we had actually lost that war too.” The Urdu to English translation was provided by Google.
There is significant anger against Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as well. A lot of Pakistanis on X aren’t pleased with his declaration of victory. However, such emotions appear restricted so far to the Imran Khan camp of social media.
The ‘Youthiyas’ Strike Back
The only positive for their Armed Forces from the India Pakistan Conflict appears to be the complete reversal of the anti-Army sentiments that were brewing among the Pakistani Youth. The anger, the frustration and the disenchantment appears to have evaporated completely. All those negative sentiments have been replaced by unflinching gratitude towards the Armed Forces, especially the Air Force.
A lot of it stems from the apparent admiration for DGPR Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed. He has been declared the ‘National Crush’ in Pakistan. The admiration for him is not limited to girls in their teens and women in their early 20s but it has extended to men with homosexual proclivities. It appears rather bizarre but who knew that all it took for an Air Vice Marshal to become the ‘National Crush’ was 11 of the country’s air bases to be wrecked by enemy missiles.
The orgy of sexual proclamations aside, if Asim Munir’s intention was to augment the reputation of the Armed Forces among their youth, then he has certainly been victorious at it. If his intentions with the India Pakistan Conflict were anything else, then he has failed in every metric.
