Wing Commander Abhinandan of the Indian Air Force, in his MiG 21 chased a much-advanced F16 of the Pakistani Air Force after it violated Indian airspace. Following the chase, Wg Cmdr Abhinandan’s jet was shot down and after he ejected, he drifted off and landed in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. While the Pakistani army released propaganda videos of him in captivity, very little is known about what exactly transpired. Most of what we know is through the reports in media, some source based and through social media.
As of now the only person who actually knows what happened during those tense hours is Wg Cmdr Abhinandan and the teams which have debriefed him. Amidst all this, ABP News has come up with a dramatic reconstruction of what might have happened after Wg Cmdr landed on the other side of LoC.
Remember when ABP News ‘reconstructed‘ film actor Sridevi’s death last year?
They have now gone a step further with this dramatic visualisation.
OpIndia analysed this 20-minute long video for you so you don’t have to cringe away in embarrassment.
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It starts with a disclaimer that the events are reconstructed on the basis of the ‘eyewitness’ account of those in Pakistan and the videos which have gone viral on social media. It states that the video is an attempt to retell the story of Wg Cmdr Abhinandan to the country.
However, it does not specify that the videos which went viral on social media are propaganda videos created and leaked by the Pakistani army and the ‘eyewitness’ account is also something that is reported in Pakistan media.
The show is titled “Sansani: Abhinandan Ka Pilot Project” which ABP News thinks is a very smart wordplay on pilot and pilot project. Sansani, by the way, means ‘sensational’. Irony just reconstructed itself with tacky graphics. The bearded news anchor in black clothes, who is best known to reconstruct petty crime scenes with psychedelic graphics is extremely enthused about the Sansani.
An actor playing the role of a visibly disoriented Wg Cmdr Abhinandan wakes up wrapped in an open parachute.
He is then suddenly surrounded by a few men, wearing caps, and then ‘Abhinandan’ points a gun at them. He asks them whether this is India or Pakistan. The men who had surrounded him tell him it is India.
‘Abhinandan’ at this point cheers, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Jai Hind”. For some uncanny reason, ‘Abhinandan’ looks like Sudhir and Ranjeet from the film Dharmatma.
Moving on, on seeing blank expressions of the men surrounding him, it dawns upon ‘Abhinandan’ that all might not be right. He then asks a follow-up question that where in India is he? He then gets up and winces in pain as he says he has injured his back.
“I have hurt my back. I may have broken it. can I have some water?” he asks. At this point, the men start sloganeering “Pakistan Army Zindabad’.
At this point, the realisation dawns upon him and he starts moving backwards. He fires his gun twice towards the sky to scare off the men, who have now picked up stones to throw at him.
Just Kashmir things. At this point, ‘Abhinandan’ runs… Despite an injured back, a dozen men cannot overpower him and after running for a bit, he finds a waterbody, a lake perhaps, and tries to ‘destroy’ documents by throwing them into the water and trying to eat them.
At this point, the men with stones, who have not yet pelted a single stone in general direction of ‘Abhinandan’ have surrounded him. But, men in army camouflage gear with arms come to his rescue.
Since even the real Wing Commander Abhinandan wasn’t sure whether these men were indeed the ‘regular’ army, we applaud ABP News’ readiness to take Pakistani propaganda. Also notice how ‘Abhinandan’ is not bleeding, does not have a black eye, does not have his nose broken. One of the propaganda videos actually released by Pakistan shows how mercilessly he was beaten up.
When the men in army camouflage clothes take away ‘Abhinandan’ the men who perhaps wanted to beat him to a pulp were dejected.
Now, the ABP News video tells us how Abhinandan actually ended up in Pakistan. For this, they show a representational video of jets flying. Which is not even the MiG 21 Wg Cmdr Abhinandan was flying. At least this part of the reconstructed video could have been correct since only this part is the confirmed information.
Random jet being shown as MiG 21 which Abhinandan flewMoments later, the stone-carrying men from above are just hanging around and chilling when suddenly they spot something in the sky.
“Ae bhaijaan, ae bhaijaan, ae Wasim, jaldi aa. Jaldi dekho. (hey, bro, hey, bro, quick, look at this)” say the curious Pakistani men.
It was ‘Abhinandan’s parachute they spotted. The way kids run to catch a kite, these men ran to catch the parachute. Later, they even reconstruct the propaganda video Pakistan had circulate, where an injured soldier was made to parrot things Pakistan wanted to be said.
And finally, a portion of actual footage of Wg Cmdr Abhinandan returning to India. Someone at ABP took time to count the number of steps Wg Cmdr Abhinandan took while walking from Pakistan side to Indian side at the Wagah border.
The video is so atrocious not only because the dramatising is tacky, but it also spreads Pakistani propaganda. Till now, all that there is in the media, especially the part that he was found by locals and that he was ‘rescued’ by Pakistani army from the ‘local men’ who wanted to beat him to a pulp is nothing but Pakistan’s version. There is no official version yet. All this is hearsay and the video featuring Wg Cmdr Abhinandan were Pakistani propaganda videos in violating Geneva Convention.
For ABP News to run this propaganda is shameful to say the least.
