The moment reports of a military confrontation break, newsrooms gear up for sleepless nights, social media erupts with all sorts of “information” and memes (the latter is Pakistan-specific), and fact-checkers know they will have their hands full in the coming days.

The latest clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which began late Thursday night and continued into early Saturday morning, was no different.

Within the first 12 hours, the fact-checking team at iVerify Pakistan had spotted more than a dozen claims circulating on social media, ranging from the names of Taliban commanders allegedly killed and footage of Pakistani jets crashing to visuals of chaos following an attack on the Kakul military academy and soldiers from both sides purportedly being captured. Local journalists and social media commentators all fed into this cycle of mis- and disinformation, along with propaganda accounts from India and Afghanistan.

When war turns into content

In the midst of the late-night action on Thursday, as Pakistan launched ‘Operation Ghazab lil-Haq’ and both sides reported mounting damages inflicted on each other, UK’s Sky News ran a news bulletin in which the anchor says, “ …Afghanistan’s military authorities say they have begun carrying out air strikes against Pakistan”.

The clip, which was posted on X and started receiving backlash within minutes — since Afghanistan has no real air force to speak of — was deleted after a while, but not before the meme brigade had a field day with it.

But as mentioned above, Pakistanis’ memes are always at the ready; scrolling through X on Friday night, I saw as many people posting memes, mostly about Pakistan’s military supremacy compared to its neighbour’s, as I did people sharing updates about the ongoing military engagement at the time.

That Pakistanis turn to humour in moments of crisis, from cricket to war, is not new information – and we are, undoubtedly, exceptionally good at it – but that we do so as an immediate reaction to a situation that could lead to more civilian casualties on both sides is a concern worth pondering over. For netizens of a country all too familiar with turmoil, humour may be a somewhat natural coping mechanism, as this article from the India-Pakistan meme-war of 2025 observes, but when it comes at the expense of those living in your own country, you know it is no longer harmless.

To elaborate, the Prime Minister’s Media Coordinator Badar Shahbaz, at 3:13 a.m. on Friday night, shared a video of a group of people with the caption: “Youth of Pakistan expressing their feelings for their armed forces in the wake of the Afghanistan situation. Pakistan Hamesha Zindabad.”

Six minutes later at 3:19am, in the middle of providing important updates on the skirmishes, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar – or his team – re-shared it with this caption: “The youth of Pakistan have a distinct sense of patriotism; they find humour in every situation.”

Laughter that lands on the vulnerable

Setting aside the government co-opting the nation’s tried-and-tested coping mechanism, let’s talk about how they didn’t even do it right. The video features a group of men and women, with one person delivering lines like, “You’re Afghani, and you’re going to attack Pakistan?” and a young woman popping in to say, “acha jee”, which can only be translated as “oh really”. One could have ignored the cringe-inducing script, but not when one of the lines goes: “Apart from running tandoors, you also fight wars?”

The line perpetuates stereotypes, looks down upon the livelihoods of many, and brings the war within our own borders. As of December 2025, according to UNHCR, 1,021,562 registered Afghan refugees live in Pakistan. This figure comes after the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, which began in November 2023 and did not exempt even those with proper documentation, such as Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, or those born in Pakistan.

This publication has already addressed the flaws in the repatriation policy in many articles, including this one by former parliamentarian Ghazan Jamal, so I won’t delve into that here. However, I will emphasise that Pakistan has witnessed multiple waves of Afghan refugee influx, spanning the period from the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979 to the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan in 2021.

Over the years, millions of Afghans have lived in Pakistan and become part of its society. The “tandoor” that is referred to so derogatorily in this video is available and appreciated across the country. You will find an eatery named Afghan Tandoor, or some iteration of it, in most of our major cities. Our capital boasts some of the best Afghan cuisine. Whether these establishments are run by Afghans or employ them is a moot point; the video reduces them to “tandoor walas” without taking into account the racist slurs and comments that already exist in our society.

From being linked to rising crime waves and violence without clear data to being labelled a ‘tattered Afghan refugee’ who is perceived as a burden on the government — regardless of education and economic background — the Afghans in Pakistan have struggled for acceptance in Pakistan for decades.

On its own, this video — and particularly this one line — is in poor taste; but when it is endorsed by government officials and lumped together with patriotism, it becomes extremely problematic and poses a danger to a community that has made Pakistan its home.

Our government would be among the first — and rightly so — to speak about the safety of Pakistan-origin migrants in other countries when they are targeted. For example, back in January 2025, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) condemned the “increasingly racist and Islamophobic” comments directed at Pakistanis in the UK following the disturbing revelations of the Rochdale grooming gang. Most of the perpetrators were indeed British-Pakistanis, but as the FO noted “the increasingly racist and Islamophobic political and media commentary in the UK … aimed at conflating the reprehensible actions of a few individuals with the entire 1.7 million British Pakistani diaspora” was deeply concerning.

So shouldn’t the same principles apply to the people who live alongside us?

In military escalations, it’s a given that misinformation and mockery can run amok – but is one more dangerous than the other?

The answer is that they can overlap and cause even more damage when combined.

The stakes of speech in escalating tensions

When we speak of false information, there is a third category apart from misinformation (spreading inaccurate information) and disinformation (deliberately spreading inaccurate information): malinformation. This refers to information that is based on truth — though it may be exaggerated or presented out of context — but is shared with the intent to attack an idea, individual, organisation, group, country, or other entity.

This is the trickiest category for fact-checkers, much like hate speech, which often falls under it, as you cannot always verify social commentary or provide evidence (something fact-checking is meant to do) to demonstrate how a notion is preposterous and harmful. As identified in the iVerify report, based on data from the claims it reviewed over two years, these narratives exploit historical grievances, deepen mistrust, and pose tangible risks to social cohesion and public safety.

The comments under both government officials’ posts show many people criticising the crassness of the video. But — lest they (or I) be labelled anti-state for critiquing it — they are not unpatriotic; Pakistanis believe the country has the full right to defend itself resolutely and ensure that no armed actors violate its territory. However, we also expect better from our leaders, who represent all those who live in the country, regardless of where they come from, and are tasked with ensuring their safety.

In situations of conflict and battle, nationalism and emotions are at their peak, so the words and actions of leaders carry even greater weight and implications. Leave the humour to the people; keep your focus on the facts.