How Pakistan's Most Famous Hoaxes Took Hold
Pakistan’s best-known hoax stories are not variations on a single national weakness. They range from forged Buddhist sculptures and a supposed water-powered car to planted diplomatic “leaks”, recycled war footage and a covert vaccination scheme that was not merely rumour but a genuine deception.
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Introduction
The most revealing cases show that falsehoods become persuasive when they borrow authority. A questionable invention is demonstrated before politicians and scientists. Propaganda is dressed as a secret American cable. A new statue acquires the patina of ancient Gandhara. A modern legend about Mohenjo-daro invokes radiation and nuclear physics. Once trusted institutions repeat such claims, correcting them becomes harder than inventing them.
The car that supposedly ran on water
In 2012, Pakistani inventor Waqar Ahmad attracted national attention by claiming that ordinary vehicles could run on water. His apparatus, commonly called a “water kit”, reportedly separated hydrogen from water and fed it into an engine. Ahmad said a litre of water could carry a small car for roughly 40 kilometres and a motorcycle much farther. He demonstrated a vehicle before parliamentarians, students and scientific officials, while television programmes gave the claim enthusiastic coverage.[The Times of India]timesofindia.indiatimes.comThe Times of India Dream come true?A car that can run on waterJuly 28, 2012 — 28 Jul 2012 — Waqar Ahmad drove his car using water as fuel on Thursday during a demonstration…
The appeal was obvious. Pakistan was experiencing severe electricity shortages and rising fuel costs. A cheap domestic invention promised relief from imported petrol while offering a patriotic scientific triumph. The claim also looked plausible to non-specialists because hydrogen really can be produced from water and burned as fuel.
The missing point was where the energy came from. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen consumes energy. Burning the hydrogen can return part of that energy, but not more than was supplied in the first place. If the kit drew electricity from the car’s alternator, which was itself turned by the engine, unavoidable losses would make the system a drain rather than a new source of power. Water was therefore not functioning as the fuel.
Pakistani physicists and science writers called for a properly controlled demonstration: remove every possible petrol supply, connect the device to an independently inspected engine or generator, measure all electrical inputs and see whether it continues to run. No credible test established the extraordinary performance claimed. Critics also noted that versions of the “water car” story had appeared internationally for decades, usually relying on concealed energy sources, confused accounting or outright fraud.[The Express Tribune]tribune.com.pkThe Express Tribune The water car fraudThe Express TribuneThe water car fraudAugust 2, 2012 — 2 Aug 2012 — The water fraud will be exposed soon enough and, like a bad posterior…
The episode mattered less as an engineering mystery than as a failure of verification. Television spectacle took the place of measurement, while prestigious observers lent the demonstration borrowed credibility. The decisive question was never whether hydrogen burns. It was whether the complete system produced more usable energy than it consumed. It did not.
The diplomatic cables that never existed
The 2010 WikiLeaks release of United States diplomatic cables created ideal conditions for a media hoax. Hundreds of thousands of genuine documents were appearing in batches, few journalists could examine the full archive, and authentic cables contained enough blunt private commentary to make almost any new insult sound believable.
Several Pakistani newspapers published reports attributed to the Online News Agency claiming that leaked American cables described senior Indian military figures as vain, incompetent or genocidal. The stories also appeared to validate Pakistani accusations concerning Indian activity in Kashmir and the tribal regions.[The Guardian]theguardian.comThe Guardian Wiki Leaks fake cables – Pakistani newspapers admit theyThe GuardianWikiLeaks fake cables – Pakistani newspapers admit they…December 10, 2010 — 10 Dec 2010 — Two leading Pakistani papers adm…
The accounts were false. Journalists with access to the searchable WikiLeaks material could not locate the quoted passages. The supposed revelations had acquired credibility largely by attaching themselves to a real document release. Readers were not being asked to believe an entirely invented event; they were being given counterfeit items mixed into a genuine historical archive.
The News acknowledged that the material was dubious and might have been planted, while the Express Tribune apologised to its readers. Reporting at the time found that the false stories had been distributed through the Online News Agency, although the original author or sponsor was not clearly established.[theguardian.com]theguardian.comThe Guardian Wiki Leaks fake cables – Pakistani newspapers admit theyThe GuardianWikiLeaks fake cables – Pakistani newspapers admit they…December 10, 2010 — 10 Dec 2010 — Two leading Pakistani papers adm…
This was a particularly efficient form of propaganda. The fabricated cables flattered existing national assumptions, appeared to come from a hostile power’s own diplomats and arrived during intense public interest in India–Pakistan relations. Their exposure required no secret intelligence work: investigators simply checked the claimed quotations against the actual documents.
When seized antiquities turn out to be new
Pakistan’s ancient Gandhara region produced a celebrated Buddhist artistic tradition, particularly between the early centuries before and after the beginning of the Common Era. Genuine sculptures command substantial prices, making the field attractive not only to smugglers but also to modern forgers.
A vivid example emerged in Karachi in 2012, when police intercepted a large consignment presented as ancient Gandharan material. Initial coverage treated the seizure as the recovery of hundreds of valuable Buddhist antiquities. Subsequent examination complicated the triumphal story: Sindh’s culture secretary said that many of the approximately 300 objects were copies, and specialists had to separate authentic pieces from modern imitations.[The Express Tribune]tribune.com.pkThe Express Tribune Some recovered Gandhara artefacts found to be forgeriesThe Express Tribune Some recovered Gandhara artefacts found to be forgeries
The problem extends beyond one seizure. A scholarly study of confiscated Gandharan stelae concluded that most of the examined pieces were fake. Specialists warn that growing numbers of forgeries can enter private collections and eventually distort art-historical research, because later scholars may unknowingly classify modern inventions as evidence of ancient styles, workshops or religious practices.[jac.qau.edu.pk]jac.qau.edu.pkOpen source on edu.pk.
Gandharan forgeries can be persuasive because the authentic tradition was varied. Workshops used stone, stucco and other materials across a wide geographical area, while many genuine objects were removed from archaeological sites without adequate records. That lack of provenance—the documented history of where an object was excavated, owned and sold—gives fakes room to hide.
Ageing a surface, copying familiar poses and introducing chips may make a sculpture look old, but appearance alone is weak evidence. Investigators consider tool marks, mineral deposits, stylistic inconsistencies, weathering, breaks and the object’s ownership history. Scientific analysis can help, although it rarely substitutes for secure archaeological context.
Even international restitution can become tangled in authenticity disputes. When the United States returned a group of purportedly smuggled objects to Pakistan in 2007, a prominent London specialist argued that a “Starving Buddha” among them was a modern fake, while American customs officials said Pakistani authorities had accepted the objects as genuine. The disagreement illustrates an awkward truth: an artefact can be illegally traded, politically important and of uncertain authenticity at the same time.[Art Newspaper]theartnewspaper.comArt Newspaper Starving Buddha sculpture returned to PakistanArt Newspaper Starving Buddha sculpture returned to Pakistan
The fake vaccination campaign that made rumours credible
The most consequential deception connected with Pakistan’s hoax history was not invented by local gossip or sensational journalism. In 2011, the United States Central Intelligence Agency used a sham hepatitis B vaccination programme in Abbottabad while searching for evidence that Osama bin Laden or members of his family were living there.
Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi helped organise the operation. Its purpose was to obtain biological material that might establish a family connection to occupants of the suspected compound. The vaccination cover did not ultimately provide the evidence that located bin Laden, but its existence became public after the American raid in May 2011.[science.org]science.orgOpen source on science.org.
This case requires an important distinction. Claims that ordinary polio vaccines sterilise children or form part of a Western plot are false. Yet the CIA really did misuse the appearance of a health programme for intelligence work. A genuine deception therefore supplied propaganda material to people spreading much broader and medically unfounded allegations.
Public-health organisations warned that the operation damaged the neutrality on which vaccinators depend. Researchers later found evidence that disclosure of the CIA scheme reduced vaccination rates in Pakistani districts where Islamist parties had stronger electoral support. The effect was not simply a general decline in trust: it was greatest where political actors had reasons and networks to amplify the story.[Cato Institute]cato.orgInstitute In Vaccines We Trust? The Effects of the CIA'sInstitute In Vaccines We Trust? The Effects of the CIA's
The deception did not create all Pakistani resistance to vaccination. Suspicions about foreign health programmes, religious objections, insecurity and anti-government feeling existed beforehand. It nevertheless gave sceptics a powerful factual example with which to support unrelated false claims. Militants subsequently attacked vaccinators and their police escorts, while public-health workers had to persuade families that real immunisation teams were not spies.[thelancet.com]thelancet.comOpen source on thelancet.com.
The damage remains visible. Pakistan and Afghanistan are still the only countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic, and attacks on vaccination personnel have continued. Pakistani officials say more than 200 health workers and security personnel associated with polio campaigns have been killed since the 1990s. False sterilisation stories cannot be excused by the CIA operation, but the episode shows how one documented act of deception can poison trust far beyond its original target.[AP News]apnews.comHealth workers and their security escorts have been frequent targets of militant attacks due to false conspiracy theories portraying vacc…
Was Mohenjo-daro destroyed by an atomic bomb?
One of the most persistent legends about Pakistan’s past claims that Mohenjo-daro, the great Indus civilisation city in Sindh, was destroyed by an ancient nuclear explosion. Online versions refer to radioactive skeletons, fused or vitrified stone, bodies supposedly lying where they were killed and descriptions of supernatural weapons in ancient South Asian literature.
The story is not supported by the archaeology. Excavations conducted between 1922 and 1931 produced only about 37 skeletons or partial skeletons securely associated with the Indus-period city, accumulated across a large settlement and several occupational levels. They were not a population frozen at the instant of a single catastrophic blast.[Penn Museum]penn.museumthe mythical massacre at mohenjo darothe mythical massacre at mohenjo daro
Earlier archaeologists did interpret some scattered remains as evidence of a massacre during an invasion. Later examination weakened even that conventional story. The skeletons did not all come from the same level, some were incomplete or disturbed, and the city’s history could not be reduced to one violent ending. The “nuclear” version magnified an already questionable massacre narrative by adding unsupported claims about radiation and advanced weapons.
No verified archaeological report establishes a nuclear blast crater, city-wide instant destruction, anomalous radiation or the pattern of thermal damage that such an event would produce. Mohenjo-daro experienced rebuilding, environmental pressure and gradual decline rather than a clearly demonstrated atomic apocalypse.
This is better described as pseudoarchaeology than as a single, traceable hoax. There may be no original prankster who planned to deceive the public. Instead, misunderstood excavation reports, dramatic retellings and invented scientific details have been copied until repetition itself appears to serve as evidence. The legend survives because it combines a famous ruined city, an undeciphered civilisation and modern anxiety about nuclear warfare.
How modern misinformation borrows authority
Research into misinformation in Pakistan found recurring techniques across WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube: emotional appeals, religious or political polarisation, conspiracy narratives, incorrect factual claims and impersonation of trusted sources. These mechanisms closely resemble those seen in the older cases. The technology changes, but successful fabrications still dress themselves in authority.[arXiv]arxiv.orgarXiv Investigating Misinformation Dissemination on Social Media in PakistanarXiv Investigating Misinformation Dissemination on Social Media in Pakistan
The resemblance is clear:
- The water car used the language of engineering and the presence of prominent observers.
- The fake WikiLeaks reports borrowed the authority of genuine secret documents.
- Forged sculptures imitate the materials and iconography of recognised antiquities.
- The Mohenjo-daro legend invokes radiation, archaeology and ancient literature.
- Wartime fabrications borrow television graphics, official-looking captions, video-game footage or artificial intelligence.
During the India–Pakistan military crisis of May 2025, false reports circulated on both sides of the border. Recycled footage, artificial-intelligence imagery and game simulations were presented as evidence of attacks, aircraft losses, captured personnel, destroyed air defences and political upheaval. Some stories crossed from anonymous accounts into mainstream broadcasts or statements by prominent public figures before verification caught up.[The Guardian]theguardian.comOpen source on theguardian.com.
The episode demonstrated how conflict collapses the time available for checking. A false video may attract millions of views before specialists establish that it came from another country, an earlier war or a computer game. Patriotic audiences are also inclined to share material that signals victory or humiliation of an adversary, even when the source is uncertain.
This does not make every mistaken wartime report a deliberate hoax. Some are organised propaganda, some are engagement-seeking inventions, and others are errors made by anxious users or hurried journalists. The distinction matters because motive determines responsibility, even when the public effect—confusion, fear or escalation—is similar.
What exposes a durable hoax
Pakistan’s major deception stories were undone by ordinary forms of checking rather than dramatic revelations. Investigators compared fake cables with the actual archive, examined seized sculptures instead of trusting their labels, applied energy accounting to the water car and returned to excavation records when assessing the Mohenjo-daro legend.
Several practical tests recur across these cases.
Check the chain of custody. Where did a document, photograph or artefact originate? A sensational object without a traceable history deserves greater scrutiny, not greater excitement.
Separate a demonstration from a controlled test. A vehicle moving in public does not prove what powered it. A filmed explosion does not establish where or when it occurred.
Look for independent measurement. Extraordinary scientific claims require disclosed methods, measured inputs and outputs, and successful replication by people who do not benefit from the result.
Consult the underlying record. When a report claims to quote a leaked cable or archaeological publication, the most useful question is whether the words or findings appear in the original source.
Notice emotional convenience. Claims that deliver national vindication, miraculous technology, religious confirmation or an enemy’s humiliation receive less sceptical attention precisely because audiences want them to be true.
The deeper lesson is that hoaxes rarely succeed through clever fabrication alone. They succeed when institutions, commercial incentives and existing beliefs carry them. Pakistan’s cases also show why corrections vary in effectiveness. A fake newspaper item can be retracted in a day; a forged object may trouble scholarship for decades; and a covert operation disguised as medicine can leave a legacy of mistrust long after the deception itself has been admitted.
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Endnotes
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