Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif once more enraged online users with his strange comments; this time about a claim about hacking IPL floodlights. Mr. Asif claimed during a speech to the Pakistani assembly that his country’s cyber warriors had switched off the IPL floodlights at an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket stadium in India. He was probably referring to the IPL game in Dharamshala on May 8 between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals, which was stopped halfway because of a power outage brought on by a technical fault in the area.
India launched Operation Sindoor, a dedicated military operation targeting terrorism threats in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, just one day later. On X, the 29-second video clip with Mr. Asif was widely shared; others laughed at him for his bizarre claims.
It was claimed by Asif that “India does not understand that all of this is entirely Pakistan’s indigenous technology. Our cyber warriors launched attacks on India, shut off lights in a cricket stadium in India – IPL floodlights went out and the IPL match was stopped, water was released from Indian dams, their electricity grid was shut down.”
He further added, “All these attacks, the cyber attacks, were carried out by our warriors.” Besides this, one user remarked, “I wasn’t aware that Cyber has separate concepts and curricula in Pakistan!”
One more said that the IPL floodlights function on electrical networks that are safe, and they do not utilize WiFi. Anybody can hack them like a home router is hacked.
One user joked, “If switching off lights is regarded as a cyber triumph, then my 3-year-old nephew is a global menace; he once unplugged the Wi-Fi during a Zoom meeting.” One more user added, “From battlefield bravado to stadium lights, Pakistan’s cyber strike appears to be more like a comedy script than a strategic achievement.”
