This blunder, which has been the occasion for amusement on Pakistani social media, seems to have occurred due to a mistaken assumption that the acronym PLA refers to Pakistan.
The anchor was referring to a screen display which read “PLA War Model” when the baffling mistake occurred. She can be heard explaining this as the “Pakistan Liberation Army War Model” and claimed it was “just a photocopy of what Ladakh is looking like”.
Commentators have often written of the jingoism involved in breathless “war situation” coverage by Indian private TV channels – a model of covering military affairs which was picked up by others in South Asia.
Times Now is a 24-hour English news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched in 2006 in partnership with Reuters.