SOURCE: AFI
Pakistan’s military leadership has once again found itself at the center of controversy with outlandish claims about cyber prowess, drawing widespread skepticism and amusement. Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir, dubbed “Failed Marshal” by critics, recently asserted that Pakistani cyber hackers made electricity “disappear” across India and opened the spillways of Indian dams on May 10. The statement, met with laughter and derision, contrasts sharply with available data, which shows India’s power grid recorded its highest availability rate in five months on that date, while riverine data indicates dam outflows were among the lowest for May.
Adding to the absurdity, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has made yet another bizarre claim, alleging that Islamabad’s “cyber warriors”—described by him as mere children—successfully switched off floodlights at an Indian cricket stadium during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. Speaking in the Pakistani assembly, Asif boasted, “India does not understand that all of this is entirely Pakistan’s indigenous technology. Our cyber warriors shut off the lights in India and got an IPL match suspended, opened dam waters…all these cyber attacks were done by our kids only.” The remarks appear to reference the May 8 IPL match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamshala, which was halted due to a technical power failure, later attributed to regional issues rather than any cyber intrusion.
These claims come amid heightened tensions following India’s Operation Sindoor in early May, a retaliatory strike against terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Pahalgam terror attack. Pakistani officials seem to be leveraging such narratives to project strength, but the lack of evidence has fueled online mockery. Critics point out the implausibility of hacking secure electrical systems or dam controls, with social media users joking that if such feats qualify as cyber triumphs, toddlers unplugging Wi-Fi could be deemed global threats.
Indian authorities have dismissed these assertions, with the power ministry confirming that over 200,000 cyber attacks from Pakistan between May 7-10 were successfully foiled, with no significant outages reported. The IPL disruption, meanwhile, was officially linked to a technical glitch and heightened security protocols due to regional tensions, not a cyberattack. Independent analyses, including from global cybersecurity firms, have found no evidence to support Pakistan’s claims of disrupting India’s power grid or infrastructure.
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